
Class "PS 5 0? 
Book ,C . nU ^ 
Gopightl^" 

COPyRIClIT DEPOSm 



1 




Five hundred Japanese women coaling a steamer at Yoko- 
hama. 




\\ here l£ast and West meet. This Japanese woman is 
using both the Japanese and the American method of caring 
for her children. 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY 
MILLIONS 



By 

STEPHEN J. COREY 



JOURNAL OF A VISIT 
TO THE FAR EAST 



CINCINNATI 
FOREIGN CHRISTIAN MISSIONARY SOCIETY 



Contents. 

A Glimpse of Japan, _ _ . _ 7 

A Few Days in Hongkong, - - - 13 

Manila, the Pacific Crossroads, - - 22 

Through Water-Soaked Luzon, - - 35 

By Boat, Baca, and Balsa, - - - 45 

With the Workers in Vigan, - - 52 

Interesting Laoag, - - - - - 59 

More Difficult Traveling, - - 71 

Heading Toward Manila, - - - 77 

A Day in Teeming Canton, - - - 86 

Entering Central China, - - - 94 

Among China's Rural Multitudes, - 104 

On to Nanking, - - - - - 124 

One of China's Small Cities, - - 147 

Busy Wuhu by the Yangtse, - - - 163 

Last Days With the Workers, - - 185 

Where the War Reaches China, - - 197 

In Quaint Pekin, ----- 203 

Among the Koreans, - - - - 214 

Japan in City and Country, - - 222 

Traveling in Northern Japan, - - 229 

In Important and Populous Tokyo, - 239 

Closing Days, 251 

5 



List of Illustrations. 

Japanese women coaling steamer Frontispiece 

Where East and West meet " 

Facing Page 
Journey of the Commission 8 

Buddhist idol and Japanese cartman i6 

Characteristic Filipinos ^2 

Normal class, Caribou cart, and Irrigation scheme, 48 

American school. Corn exhibit, and Students 64 

Filipino home, Missionary group, and Bamboo raft, 80 

Chinese women 96 

Chinese houseboat and Street preaching 112 

Chinese boys. Students, and Examination halls 128 

Chinese farmer and Coolies 160 

Chinese sick baby and Temple preaching 176 

Temple of Heaven, Depot, and Monuments 192 

Korean characters 208 

Commission in Oriental garb and Japanese preach- 
ers 224 

Japanese Sunday-school and Converts 240 



Among Asia's Needy Millions. 



I. 

A Glimpse of Japan. 

Tokyo, Japan, August 6, 1914. 

This afternoon, after a very pleasant voyage 
across the Pacific, our good ship the Empress 
of Japan sailed into Yokohama harbor. Al- 
though Tokyo Bay and the harbor were studded 
with quaint Japanese boats with their peculiar 
little sails, we were not fully prepared for the 
very strange and striking Japanese atmosphere 
which surrounded us on shore. A group of the 
missionaries met us on the dock and made us 
most heartily welcome. They were very anxious 
that we should catch a certain train for Tokyo, 
twenty-five miles away, and we occupied just 
eighteen minutes from the dock to the train, 
seven blocks away, which time included exam- 
ination of our baggage in the customs house. 
It was between the customs house and the train 
that we got our first real taste of Japanese life. 
We made the distance by means of the famous 
jinrikishas or two- wheeled carriages drawn by 
7 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

men. These little conveyances were invented by 
a missionary years ago, and are the most com- 
mon means of travel. There were eight of us 
all told, and we made quite an interesting pro- 
cession as we raced along through the busy 
streets. The jinrikisha has wheels about as high 
as buggy wheels, a neat little body with seat for 
one, and two slender shafts between which the 
"ricksha man" trots. The wheels are rubber 
tired, there are good springs, and the riding is 
very comfortable. A strong feeling of embar- 
rassment comes over one at first because he is 
being pulled by a man who takes the place of a 
horse. Muscular little fellows these human 
steeds are, with wonderful powers of endurance. 
In undertaking a ride in one of these strange 
vehicles, you proceed as follows : The shafts are 
rested with their ends on the ground, you climb 
in, the little man steps between the shafts, lifts 
them from the ground, and makes off at top 
speed. If you are heavy you have grave fears 
that the first jolt on the road will tip you over 
backwards and suspend your man in the air 
by the shafts. These men are garbed in tight- 
fitting garments akin to an undershirt and knee 
drawers, and their feet are shod with heavy 
socks having felt bottoms. The sock is always 
divided so that there is a place for the large toe 
separate from the rest of the foot; a straw or 
fiber hat is worn, which has the appearance of 
an old-fashioned inverted butter bowl. These 
8 



Journey of the Commission oe the Foreign Christian 
Missionary Society to the Far East. 



c? 



lonfu 



ISeouL y AKi^< 



CHINA 



^^<i 
oc^ ^^^1 



JAP/ 



nyotn 



JNanking 



FORMOSA 



Laoag 
Viga 



Luzor 



PI 



The cities marked by circles are the stations of the For- 
eign Society visited. 



A GLIMPSE OF JAPAN. 

fellows charge about twenty cents an hour for 
their services. 

The first impression of Tokyo is that you 
are in fairyland. Everything is so very different 
from anything else one has ever seen. In the 
first place, the people are very small, and then 
their clothing, appearance, and customs are quite 
foreign to anything one has experienced else- 
where. While there is a sprinkling of American 
clothes among the men, the great majority of 
them wear the favorite kimona, or some adap- 
tation of it. All the women you see on the street 
wear the kimona and a large colored sash around 
the waist. The women are all bareheaded. One 
of the most striking things is the ceaseless rattle 
of the wooden clogs on the pavement. The clogs 
are kept up from one to two inches from the 
ground by little wooden strips on the under side. 
They are usually held on by slipping the toes 
under a strap, which is divided so that there is 
a separate place for the great toe. This is made 
possible by the division in the sock also. This 
is the hot season and every man and woman 
carries a fan. The kimona garb is very cool, 
sensible, and inexpensive. The streets are 
crowded with people. The women and children 
are especially picturesque. At night, besides the 
modern electric lights, the paper lanterns are 
much used on the streets. Even the policeman 
carries one in front of him on a little stick. 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

August yth. 

The most interesting thing to-day has been 
a visit to the great temple of the Goddess of 
Mercy in the heart of the city. This famous 
temple is approached through a long temple street 
crowded on either side with little stores and 
bazaars. This street is temple property and a 
great income comes from the rentals. Another 
street near at hand is owned by the temple and 
is entirely taken up by licensed houses of prosti- 
tution. The entrance to the temple proper is 
made beneath one of the famous Japanese 
wooden arches. On either side of this gateway 
are the huge wooden guardian images, erected 
to keep the evil spirits from the temple grounds. 
These also seem to be looked upon as objects 
of worship. Inside the gateway the path is lined 
on either side with little booths where rice and 
grain are sold to be fed to the flocks of doves 
which are evident on all sides. It is supposed 
that much religious merit attaches itself to this 
feeding of the birds. The temple is anything 
but beautiful and the colorings are disappointing. 
The structure is in good repair, but dirty and 
spotted with the droppings of the doves. 

Inside the main part of the temple is the 
famous image of Buddha, but hidden behind a 
great screen. It is stated that it has been seen 
by no one for over two hundred years. The 
sleek, shaven priests could be seen in the interior, 
10 



A GLIMPSE OF JAPAN. 

sitting cross-legged on the floor, smoking their 
cigarettes. 

Great numbers of people come constantly to 
worship. Before the shrine of Buddha and 
every auxiliary shrine is a great wooden col- 
lection box with wooden bars across the top. 
Into the box every worshiper throws a coin be- 
fore beginning to worship. Then a low bow is 
made with the hands palm to palm in front 
while a brief prayer is uttered. To the right 
of the main shrine is a peculiar idol which is 
one of the most worshiped in Japan. It is a 
wooden image in a sitting posture, with a large 
portion of the body worn away. This image is 
supposed to have great healing qualities, and 
different parts of the body have been so con- 
stantly rubbed by worshipers that there is little 
left of them. One hand is completely gone, the 
eyes and all the features of the face are worn 
away, and the knees and abdomen have nearly 
disappeared. 

While we were standing near, a group of 
people came up and worshiped the idol. The 
group consisted as it seemed of a mother and 
four children, one of them being a babe in arms. 
The place where the eyes of the image had been 
were rubbed by the mother and then her hand 
passed over the face of her babe. Then each 
member of the family selected a part of the body 
of the image which corresponded with some 
II 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

troublesome part of the worshiper's body, and 
there was much rubbing and massaging. The 
pity and depression of the whole scene cut one 
to the quick. No doubt this image, looked upon 
as the embodiment of healing, is the dispenser 
of much eye disease and other ailments to the 
people who come so promiscuously to it. 



II. 
A Few Days In Hongkong. 

Hongkong, China, August 13th. 

This has been a most interesting day in this 
strange Anglo-Oriental city. We reached here 
yesterday, late in the afternoon, after a voyage 
of suppressed excitement and much uneasiness. 
The Empress of Japan, on which we sailed, was 
under order of the British admiralty from Yoko- 
hama here, and sailed direct instead of making 
her usual Japanese ports and Shanghai, China. 
There were vague rumors about the possibility 
of German cruisers scouting the seas, and we 
had all our lights out at night. We came for 
the most part over unfrequented waters and only 
sailed through the regular channels after round- 
ing the north coast of Formosa into the China 
Sea. Hongkong is a wonderful, mountain locked 
port, tremendously fortified by the British. The 
Union Jack looked good to us when we spied it 
on a British gunboat patrolling the entrance 
to the harbor. A curious but exciting incident 
occurred as we approached the inner entrance 
to the harbor. We had stopped to receive orders, 
as the port is under military law. Ahead of us 
13 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

was a Japanese collier, which proceeded to enter 
the harbor without answering any of the signals 
or stopping for inspection. As she came even 
with the forts all sorts of efforts were made to 
signal her with rockets and flag signals, but to 
no effect. A steam launch approached and called 
to the ship through a megaphone, but to no avail ; 
she kept right on. Then one of the guns in the 
fort boomed and a projectile went over her bow 
and splashed in the water on the other side, but 
the ship sailed on still. This firing was con- 
tinued until four warning shots went over the 
ship's bow, but the collier did not even slow up. 
Then the gunners at the fort sent a shot 
straight through the middle of the ship. This 
at last had the desired effect. The ship stopped, 
pulled down her flag, and, turning about, pro- 
ceeded slowly to an anchoring place. It is diffi- 
cult to understand why the captain of the Jap- 
anese boat would be so foolhardy. It is possible 
he had been some time at sea and knew nothing 
about the war, still this would hardly account ' 
for his ignoring the four warning shots. The 
rules of war are one warning shot and then the 
ship is to be fired upon if she does not stop. 
People here seem to know very little about the 
war. The papers have practically nothing in 
them which seems to be authentic. 

Hongkong is in many ways a wonderful city. 
England has built her part of it in a magnificent 
way on the side of a mountain fifteen hundred 
14 



A FEW DAYS IN HONGKONG. 

feet high. The European part is expensively 
built with structures which would do credit to 
London or any of the cities of the world. The 
Chinese part is, of course, Oriental and swarm- 
ing with Chinese. Even here, however, the build- 
ings are better than one would suspect. We were 
up early this morning and went along the wharf 
front. It was an interesting spectacle. Hong- 
kong has a population of about 300,000. Of 
these, 10,000 are English and foreign, the rest 
Chinese. Of the Chinese, about 50,000 live on 
the water in the Chinese junks and sampans. 
The water along the wharfs simply swarms with 
these peculiar craft. The sapipans or smaller 
boats have one family on them, the junks from 
one to four. Each kind of craft is fitted with 
a sail or sails made of matting. Long sweeps 
or oars are also used for propelling. The women 
work at the oars as well as the men, and the 
children also if they are large enough. The 
small children play, sleep, or fly kites on the 
diminutive decks. If they are too small for this 
they are either tied on deck with a string, or 
bound to the back of mother or larger sister so 
that their care will not interfere with the work. 
These boat people are born, live, and die on their 
little floating homes. The junks are most curi- 
ous craft with a pointed bow and a broad and 
high stern, cut square off. 

The crowds on the wharf at the early hour 
were great. They were loading and unloading 
15 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

the boats and carrying burdens hither and 
thither. Men, women, and children were busy 
as bees. 

The overpowering impression that comes to 
one here at the very first is that the Chinese 
are a nation of burden bearers. Every one is at 
work, old and young. Nearly all the transpor- 
tation here in the city is done by natives with 
their burdens swinging from a bamboo pole car- 
ried across the shoulders. The weight of the 
loads swung to either end of these poles is enor- 
mous. These toilers have a swinging, springy 
sort of a dog-trot, which moves them along quite 
rapidly. The pole across their backs springs, and 
they seem to keep step with the up-and-down 
motion of the burden. If the load is too heavy 
for one, it is swung on a bamboo pole between 
two men, or even four, as the occasion demands. 
If the object or objects to be moved require a 
cart, this is pulled by men and women. Hong- 
kong is one of the great ports of the world. 

The sedan chair and the jinrikisha are both 
used to a great extent here. As the city is built 
on the side of a mountain, it is too steep for the 
latter conveyance except as one travels along the 
water front or on streets parallel to it. For 
traveling on the steep grades the chair is very 
efficient. It is carried between two bamboo 
poles by two coolies, one in front and one behind. 
These men place the poles on their shoulders and 
travel quite rapidly, making use of the charac- 
i6 



Buddhist idol seventy 
feet high at Sakata, Ja- 
pan. 




Japanese cart-man witl 
his load of vegetables for 
sale. 



A FEW DAYS IN HONGKONG. 

teristic trot. Their movement keeps the chair 
and the rider springing up and down, a motion 
unusual but not uncomfortable. 

One at first feels not a little ashamed at being 
either carried or pulled by human beings, but 
this feeling quickly passes as one sees the eager- 
ness with which these men do the work, and 
especially after one has tried the experience of 
a long walk in this tropical sun. The jinrikisha 
rate is five cents (Mexican) or two and one-half 
cents our money for the first ten minutes, with 
a diminishing rate thereafter. The chair rate is 
about double this. 

We all took an hour and a half jinrikisha ride 
out to the cemeteries this afternoon. The cost 
was twenty cents each. We visited the Catholic, 
Protestant, Mohammedan, and Parsee burial 
places^all very beautiful and interesting. 

There seems to be a strong feeling among 
the Chinese against the British, and when any 
of the native storekeepers, or others who speak 
English, find that we are from America, they 
eagerly ask us about the war and if Germany 
will not defeat the English. The British have 
really made Hongkong what it is, as this was 
practically a barren island before they took it, 
but the Chinese rather resent their presence here. 
This is not to be wondered at, especially with 
the increased national consciousness and advance 
in China. I suppose their feeling is akin to what 
ours would be if the British were entrenched 
17 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

on Long Island, having taken the island by force 
years ago, when our Nation was too weak to say 
nay. It seems inevitable, if China maintains her 
integrity and continues to advance, that Great 
Britain will have to relinquish her hold here at 
some time in the future. 

August 14th. 

We have had a most interesting time this 
morning. We got chairs and visited the Chinese 
Young Men's Christian Association, the Congre- 
gational and the London Missionary Society sta- 
tions, and a Chinese Confucian temple. We went 
into the heart of the Chinese quarters and saw 
the people as they really live. What a swarm 
of humanity! The American secretary of the 
Y. M. C. A. was out, but one of his Chinese 
assistants who speaks English showed us through 
the plant. We found a group of Chinese Chris- 
tian pastors, together with the Y. M. C. A. work- 
ers, planning the evangelistic campaign which is 
to be held in the fall, when Sherwood Eddy 
visits Hongkong. They seemed to be very en- 
thusiastic over the prospect. The Y. M. C. A. 
is rather an old building, but they have bought 
a fine new lot across the street and paid for 
it, and have recently raised in a two weeks' 
whirlwind campaign $25,000 for the erection of 
a new building. This money was pledged en- 
tirely by the Chinese. The association has fifteen 
hundred members and seems to be doing excel- 
18 



A FEW DAYS IN HONGKONG. 

lent work. It was organized fourteen years ago 
with one hundred members. There is a good 
gymnasium, shower baths, billiard rooms, read- 
ing rooms, and a volley-ball court outside. There 
are night classes and the usual activities of a 
Y. M. C. A. at home. There are also quite a 
large number of rooms, where a number of Chi- 
nese students from nearby colleges board. It 
was a joy to see the bright-faced, alert Chinese 
helpers in the institution. There are two col- 
leges in the city under the Church Missionary 
Society of London, one under the Roman Cath- 
olics, and one conducted by the British Govern- 
ment. 

Next to the Y. M. C. A. is an independent 
Chinese church and school (Congregational) 
which was first organized by the American 
Board of Boston. It has a membership of three 
hundred, is entirely self-supporting, and has paid 
back $10,000 of the original $20,000 put into the 
building by the Board. We also visited the 
nearby Anglican independent Chinese church, 
which has a membership of eight hundred and 
is also entirely self-supporting. Next to this is 
a large hospital operated by the London Mis- 
sionary Society. 

The Chinese pastor of the Congregational 
church was very kind, showing us through the 
church and explaining his work to us with much 
interest. He was converted in a little mining 
town in California about twenty years ago, and 
19 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

seems to be a rare spirit. His face beams with 
good-natured sunshine. 

Just between these two churches is a large 
Confucian temple, which we visited. There was 
quite a crowd in the entrance, and many in the 
temple. However, they seemed more occupied 
with trading, visiting, smoking, and sleeping, than 
with anything like worship. The priest in charge, 
who was dressed in a shabby pair of trousers 
and a dirty undershirt, gladly showed us through. 
At the close he eagerly pressed us for money, 
but seemed satisfied with a few cents. The tem- 
ple was a filthy, ill-smelling place, hot and stifling 
and the air thick with the smoke of incense. 
We were in the temple for some time and noticed 
but one worshiper, a woman, who spent some 
minutes kneeling before the Confucian tablet and 
touching her head repeatedly to the floor. The 
priest showed a number of images representing 
kings, queens, and sages whose spirits also are 
worshiped, but looked upon as some degrees 
lower than Confucius. Joss sticks and candles 
were burning everywhere. A gaping crowd of 
curious people followed us into the interior of 
the temple and watched us with great curiosity. 
We were especially impressed with the lack of 
any reverence for the place on the part of the 
people. A number of people were noisily sleep- 
ing in convenient places on the floor. The temple 
seemed to be the neighborhood loafing place. In 
the entry-way a huge paper image, inflated to 
20 



A FEW DAYS IN HONGKONG. 

four times life size, seemed stationed as guardian 
of the temple, apparently deemed effective be- 
cause of its horrible ugliness. The utter hope- 
lessness and stolid indifference of the people, 
together with the unkempt and nauseating in- 
terior of the temple, gave us a most depressing 
sensation. 



21 



III. 
Manila, the Pacific Crossroads. 

On China Sea, August i/th. 

We expect to reach Manila in the morning. 
We have had a fairly smooth voyage across the 
China Sea, but the boat is very small, and the con- 
stant pitching has made us all miserable. With 
one exception we have escaped visiting the rail- 
ing, but only a careful tendency to lie on our 
backs has saved us from it. We are all in favor 
of coming back on a larger boat. We remember 
Brother Rains's injunction, "When you cross the 
China Sea, remember me." There are three 
Germans on board (one of them a consul) who 
were ordered out of French Indo-China when 
war was declared. They have had a hard time 
getting out, and are going to Manila for safety. 

Manila, August i8th. 

We entered Manila Bay at sunrise this morn- 
ing, sailing through the same narrow north chan- 
nel used by Dewey early on the morning of May 
Day, sixteen years ago. The hills at the entrance 
are beautifully wooded and the prospect most 
pleasing. The entrance to the bay lends itself 

22 



MANILA, THE PACIFIC CROSSROADS. 

naturally to strong fortification. Corregidor, the 
rugged island at the very entrance, is called the 
American Gibraltar. It is very strongly fortified 
and commands practically the whole entrance, 
although supplemented by two smaller fortressed 
islands in the south channel. It is difficult to 
imagine how any fleet could possibly force an 
entrance to this beautiful bay. The situation is 
quite different from that in 1898 when Dewey 
with his fleet crept by Corregidor in the darkness 
of early morning, made the remaining twenty- 
seven miles to Manila Bay by daybreak, and de- 
stroyed the Spanish fleet before breakfast. What 
a new destiny his daring act brought to these 
beautiful islands, and what a responsibility to the 
United States! Probably no single military en- 
gagement in the history of the world has meant 
so much for a down-trodden, suffering people as 
did Dewey's sinking of the Spanish fleet in 
Manila harbor. That act meant the freeing of 
eight million people from the despotic and de- 
grading tyranny of Spain and the granting to 
them of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, 
for all that has been done by missionary, school, 
commission, and civil government was only made 
possible by military occupation. 

What an earnest lot of people these mission- 
aries are! Bruce Kershner, Dr. Lemmon, and 
Mr. Daugherty came far out into the bay to meet 
our steamer, and we had scarcely anchored when 
they clambered up the side of our ship from the 
23 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

launch in which they had found their way out 
to us. Far more important than even the news 
of the European war was their mission work, 
and eyen our eager questions about news from 
the homeland, from which we had so long been 
separated, failed to divert them from the great 
things on their hearts. 

The West and the East come into more sharp 
contact here, perhaps, than in any other part of 
the Orient. Here is the swiftness of the United 
States and the slow, plodding movement of the 
East. Side by side with the ponderous, slow- 
moving, long-horned caribou, pulling the native 
cart with his primitive yoke and harness, is the 
modern automobile with its humming engine and 
breakneck speed. 

One is strongly impressed with the wonder- 
ful improvements the American occupation has 
brought to Manila. It is probably the best im- 
proved city in all the Orient, and great plans are 
being perfected to still further beautify, improve, 
and harmonize it. The streets are well paved, 
there is a good sewer system, electric car lines 
cover well the city, and excellent stores are to 
be seen throughout the business section. 

After helping us in the perfunctory task of 
getting our trunks and bags through the customs, 
our missionary friends loaded us into the little 
native caramatas, or pony carts, and drove us 
through the city to our central mission house. 
On the way we passed many interesting things. 
24 



MANILA, THE PACIFIC CROSSROADS. 

We saw the old Spanish city wall, moat, and 
dungeons, two hundred and fifty years old, and 
near these the great modern American ice plant. 
Alongside a cock-pit with its Spanish fighting 
cocks flourishes an up-to-date department store. 
The Filipino vegetable peddler with his quaint, 
broad basket perched on his head, sidesteps to 
make way for the buzzing tricycle cart of the 
ice-cream vender. One sees a native maid with 
her exceedingly wide, highly colored and stifiiy 
starched skirt and immense crinoline sleeves, 
standing in her heelless red slippers, while she 
talks on the street corner with her sister, togged 
out in a very narrow American skirt, high-heeled 
French shoes, and a picture hat. 

We found our central mission station excel- 
lently housed in a large building which was pur- 
chased some six years ago for $6,000. It is now 
worth three times this sum. In it lives a mis- 
sionary family, and besides it furnishes a home 
for the present Bible college, a native church, 
a dormitory for boys, a book store, and the 
printing press and office of the Manila mission. 

This mission house is in the center of the 
city, on one of the very best streets, and was 
formerly an aristocratic Spanish home. It is 
well built with great cement walls and will last 
a century. The wood finishing in it is largely 
native mahogany, sawn from the forests by hand 
many years ago. The boards in the floors are 
twenty-six inches wide and fastened with wooden 
25 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

pins. The well-to-do Spaniards of olden days 
built in commodious and elegant style. 

Bruce L. Kershner and wife are now in this 
house, together with Mr. Daugherty. Mr. and 
Mrs. Kershner have charge of the Bible college 
for the training of Filipino evangelists, and Mr. 
Daugherty manages the mission press, prints the 
Tagalog Christian paper, looks after the business 
office of the mission, and works with native 
evangelists in Manila and the Tagalog province. 
Leslie Wolfe and wife, who are home on fur- 
lough now, will be located again at this center 
when they return. 

It is most refreshing to be here among these 
earnest, busy missionaries after the long and 
somewhat tiresome sea voyage. 

August ipth. 

These missionaries certainly know how to 
keep one going at the American pace even here 
in the Orient. To-day we have been so inces- 
santly busy that it has been hard to mentally 
record our impressions, and becomes doubly hard 
to do so on paper. Our Commission only has 
three weeks to visit these stations, somewhat 
widely separated, and the workers are feverish to 
show us their work with its problems and oppor- 
tunities. If the people at home could but know 
the rare opportunity which presents itself here, 
the wonderful results already attained, and the 
almost crushing amount of work that our mis- 
26 



MANILA, THE PACIFIC CROSSROADS. 

sionaries are trying to do, the support of the 
work would be far larger than it is. Mission- 
aries make some mistakes, of course, but the 
wonder is that they have made so few when 
we consider the small resources at their hands 
and the rapid, almost kaleidoscopic changes in 
the islands. 

To-day Mr. Kershner has given us the fore- 
noon to show us the educational situation in 
Manila as it, relates itself to the future work of 
training native evangelists and leaders, and this 
afternoon Mr. Daugherty has shown us the Fili- 
pino outposts which we have in the city. Manila 
has 250,000 people, and spreads over a very large 
area, so that we have covered much territory. 

One of the most striking results of American 
occupation is the public school system, so care- 
fully and efficiently introduced, which culminates 
in the University of the Philippine Islands, lo- 
cated here in Manila. The Government has 
obtained the property on both sides of beautiful 
Taft Avenue for a distance of over a mile, and 
here one of the most modern and all-inclusive 
universities in the world is being gradually built 
up. The grounds are most beautiful, the build- 
ings entirely modern, and the whole plan and 
arrangement very impressive. The United States 
is school teacher to the Philippine Islands in 
every sense of the word. Not satisfied with the 
method of the West toward the East for four 
hundred years, in which the education has been 
27 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

superficial, incomplete, and largely through the 
channels of commerce and military prowess, we 
have undertaken to give this people the oppor- 
tunity of real education leading to final gradu- 
ation. This graduation proposed is not simply 
completion of specified instruction in educational 
institutions, but is likewise planned as a gradu- 
ation from outside governmental direction into 
a full-fledged nation. 

Feeling the need of a better equipment for 
the training of our native ministry, our mission 
has purchased a fine piece of land on Taft Ave- 
nue, right in the midst of the university prop- 
erties. This seems to be a very strategic move 
and will give our training school the opportuni- 
ties and prestige afforded by the university. It 
is proposed to build on this property very soon 
a Bible training school and dormitory building, 
a missionaries' home, and a chapel for the uni- 
versity church of our people. The dormitory 
would accommodate the Bible school as well as 
students from the university. This would be 
self-supporting from student rentals, and pro- 
vide a good evangelistic avenue into the student 
body. It is possible that the chapel, classrooms 
for Bible students, and the dormitory may be 
provided in one building. Two of the generous 
supporters of the work in America have given 
the $40,000 necessary for this property and plant. 

The greatest need of missionary work in the 
Philippines is for well-trained native evangelists 
28 



MANILA, THE PACIFIC CROSSROADS. 

and leaders. It is easy, therefore, to see the 
great importance of both the location and the 
proposed training school on it. 

In the afternoon the three of us, together 
with Mr. Daugherty, took a couple of caramatas 
and visited the two chapels we have in Manila 
aside from the one located in the central mission 
building. We found these to be very plain little 
buildings, one constructed of bamboo and the 
other of undressed lumber. In these modest 
structures good congregations of Filipino Chris- 
tians meet, ministered to by preachers of their 
own race. We have a number of other places 
in the city where there is preaching in the homes 
of believers. On Sunday afternoon a group of 
the students in the Bible college go out for 
preaching and personal work in various parts 
of the city. 

In the Tagalog field, of which Manila is the 
center, we have something over twenty-five con- 
gregations. Many of these are self-sustaining, 
where the preaching is done by the elders of the 
church. Leslie Wolfe, who is now home on 
furlough, superintends this work of evangeliza- 
tion. During his absence from the field, Mr. 
Daugherty is looking after this part of the work, 
besides managing the students' dormitory and 
publishing the Tagalog Christian magazine with 
a circulation of 10,000. 

This evening has been most delightful. On 
their own initiative the Filipino brethren ar- 
29 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MitLIONS. 

ranged a fine reception for the members of the 
Commission. They decorated the chapel in the 
mission building beautifully and carried out a 
long program consisting of welcome addresses 
and music. There were over three hundred of 
the Filipino members of our church present, and 
the enthusiasm was at a high pitch. There were 
eight addresses of welcome, six being by Fili- 
pino evangelists and the two on the part of the 
missionaries, given by Mr. Kershner and Dr. 
Lemmon. Four of the Filipino brethren spoke 
in their native tongue, one of them spoke in 
English, and one other made his address first in 
English and then Tagalog. It is doubtful if 
any group of churches in America could have 
arranged a similar evening in better taste and 
with more appropriate addresses. Quite a large 
choir occupied the platform and acquitted them- 
selves well with gospel hymns and songs in the 
Tagalog tongue. The tunes were the familiar 
ones used at home. The men were all dressed 
in white suits American style, but the women 
were garbed in their quaint Filipino dresses with 
the large crinoline sleeves and collars and long, 
trailing skirts. 

The men are very ready in speech and ac- 
quitted themselves with grace and fervency. 
Thfey spoke most gratefully of the work of the 
missionaries and the Society, and extended a 
gracious and enthusiastic welcome to the visitors. 
All through the addresses appeared expressions 
30 



MANILA, THE PACIFIC CROSSROADS. 

of the Filipino regard for liberty, both in church 
and in matters of national government. They 
spoke again and again of the good spirit of our 
own missionaries in granting them liberty in the 
management of their churches and the spread of 
the teaching. It thrilled one to hear of the meager 
beginnings of our work such a few years ago 
and the rapid growth in the island to over five 
thousand members. After the addresses of wel- 
come, Mr. Doan, Professor Bower, and I were 
called on to reply in a brief address each. Mr. 
Doan greatly stirred the people by telling them 
of the large men's class at Nelsonville, Ohio. 
It seemed hard for them to understand that so 
many men could be gathered together in one 
class to study the Bible. Until recently the peo- 
ple here have looked upon the Sunday-school 
as our people at home formerly looked upon it, 
a place almost entirely for the children. Better 
work is now being done in that field here. 

August 2 1st. 

To-day we have spent most of the day in see- 
ing the work of our hospital, called the Mary J. 
Childs Hospital, which is under the direction of 
Dr. W. N. Lemmon. With $7,000 furnished by 
Mrs. Childs, he has bought a large Spanish resi- 
dence right in the midst of the city and has trans- 
formed it into a gospel healing plant. Although 
the house is an old one, it has strong walls and 
construction and has been turned into an efficient 
31 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

hospital, where hundreds of people are finding 
healing of the body and spiritual instruction. 
Our first experience was to attend the morning 
chapel exercise, where the out-patients who had 
come for help, and those in the hospital who 
were able, met together for a gospel service. 
There were songs and Scripture reading, prayers, 
and a talk. Each patient is likewise worked with 
in the dispensary and wards, and each receives 
Christian literature printed in his own tongue. 
The doctor says the first requirement of a patient 
is that he take a bath, then he receives Christian 
teaching and, following that, physical help. The 
doctor's family occupies one side of the house 
upstairs, and Mrs. Lemmon is a great aid among 
the people in the hospital. The advisability, 
however, of living in such close proximity to the 
patients is not above question. Although of 
decided advantage to the work, it is most trying 
on the family, especially with two children in 
the home. A home for the doctor and family 
should be built at the first possible moment on 
the extra ground acquired at the side of the 
hospital. The gratitude of the patients who are 
healed is most touching. We saw a poor old 
woman whose leg was most terribly bitten by a 
savage dog. She went to the Philippine General 
Hospital and was turned away because of her 
poverty. She came to Dr. Lemmon, and is now 
almost well. Her gratitude knows no bounds. 
Another interesting patient is a Chinese from 
32 




Group of Christian Filipino nurses in Laoag Christian 
Hospital. Typical Filipino girl making a Panama hat. Aged 
Filipino pipe maker. 



MANILA, THE PACIFIC CROSSROADS. 

whose eyes the doctor has removed a growth 
which had blinded him. He can now see per- 
fectly, and has accepted Christianity and will be 
baptized soon. 

A separate ward is maintained for little babies 
and their mothers. This is an exceptionally fine 
work. Sixty per cent of all the Filipino babies 
born in the islands die in infancy. This is due 
to the ignorance of the mothers as to food, cloth- 
ing, and sanitation. Among American children 
born here the mortality is just about the same 
as in the United States. This proves decisively 
that the Philippine Islands can be made healthy 
when the laws of health are properly observed. 

It is interesting to know that Dr. Lemmon 
has furnished the entire equipment of his hos- 
pital through the fees and gifts that have come 
in for the work. He has a very modern and 
complete operating room with a full set of up-to- 
date instruments, and although the wards and 
rooms are plain, they are comfortable and per- 
fectly sanitary. There are forty beds in the 
hospital, an average of sixty bed patients per 
month, and there are from fifty to one hundred 
and twenty-five treatments a day. The Govern- 
ment has already so appreciated the work of the 
hospital that a grant of $150 a month is being 
made, although the institution has been running 
but a few months. 

Little did the wealthy old Spanish family 
that built the house thirty years ago realize that 

' 33 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILUONS. 

it would some day be turned into a Christian 
hospital where the poor and suffering of the city 
could find relief. Something of the first cost 
of such a building can be imagined when it is 
known that the material for its construction came 
from five countries: China, England, Australia, 
America, and the Philippines. There are sixteen 
hundred square yards of floor space in this 
building. The work of a Christian hospital in 
a land of great need like this is very appealing. 
One can hardly imagine a service more like the 
tender ministration of the Saviour himself. The 
work of such an institution gives great proof 
and strength to the other work of Christian 
missions. 



34 



IV. 
Through Water-Soaked Luzon. 

San Pernandino, August 21st. 

We have had our first experience on the Fili- 
pino railroad to-day, making the trip of one hun- 
dred and fifty miles from Manila to this point 
through a most interesting stretch of country. 
Dr. lycmmon came with us. We were up early, 
taking the little horse-carts across to the station 
to catch the 6 : 30 train. This is a narrow-gauge 
road, but well equipped and doing a fine business 
between these prosperous towns near the west 
coast. The station platform was lined with little 
stands, presided over by Filipino women, where 
native cakes, colored boiled eggs, and small, 
green-skinned oranges were being sold. The 
diminutive trains are arranged on the compart- 
ment plan, and we all placed ourselves and our 
hand baggage inside one of these little sections. 
A hand-bell was rung on the station platform, 
the station guard blew his tiny whistle, the guard 
accompanying the train replied in the same kind, 
the little locomotive gave two nervous toots, and 
we were off. It had been raining most of the 
time for twenty-four hours, and the water was 
35 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

standing everywhere. For the first time we dis- 
covered the real reason why the Filipino houses 
are all built high above the ground on large 
bamboo legs. We went through a large section 
of the poorer part of Manila, and the little nipa 
houses looked quite dry and comfortable perched 
high above the puddles and ponds which covered 
the ground. Practically everything about a na- 
tive house is made of bamboo except the roof, 
which is nipa palm-leaf thatch. The bamboo 
grows very large here, and posts four to six 
inches in diameter form the foundation as well 
as the sustaining timbers of the house. Instead 
of nails, a native vine of great strength is used 
to tie all the pieces in place. The sides of the 
houses are made of the outer shell of the bam- 
boo, split oif and flattened out, and then woven 
together in the fashion of splints in the bottom 
of a chair. The doors and windows are made 
of sections of the same material held in bamboo 
frames and arranged to slide back and forward 
between bamboo strips. The floors are of nar- 
row slats of bamboo, laid across tiny beams of 
the same material. The strips which form the 
floor are put down about an inch apart to pro- 
vide air and also openings for all dirt and small 
refuse to fall through. The pigs, goats, and 
chickens find their habitat underneath the house. 
The entrance to the houses, which are from four 
to six feet above ground, is made on a bamboo 
ladder. 

36 



THROUGH WATER-SOAKED LUZON. 

We came through a very fertile country 
where the chief product is rice and sugar cane. 
We also noticed some large areas of hemp. The 
chief product seems to be rice in this section, 
and as this is the early part of the rainy season, 
many of the farmers were busy preparing their 
rice fields and setting out the rice plants. The 
rice must be grown in water. This is provided 
abundantly by the rains, but must be contained 
permanently until the rice is almost mature. 
This is accomplished by building little mud walls, 
about a foot or eighteen inches high, between 
the little sections of a field. The native hold- 
ings seem to be very small, a farm comprising 
from half an acre to five acres. The caribou or 
water buffalo is used altogether for the plowing 
and preparation of the land. Before the water 
is confined on the land it is plowed with a prim- 
itive native plow of iron, attached to a crooked 
pole. Then the water is made to cover the 
ground and the caribou wallows through it, draw- 
ing the plow once more and following that with 
a crude harrow. This reduces the water-soaked 
soil to the constituency of a thin, mushy sub- 
stance. After this the rice plants, which have 
been nurtured in a separate bed, are transplated 
in this mud with the tops sticking out above the 
water. We could see the men and women busy 
in the fields knee-deep in mud. They had on 
very little clothing below the waist, and their 
heads were covered with the great bamboo hats 
37 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

nearly three feet across. As it was raining most 
of the time, they wore around their shoulders 
a cape made of palm leaf, which stuck out over 
their shoulders and from their bodies in curious 
fashion. 

An interested and interesting crowd watched 
the train and its passengers as we stopped at each 
station. Nearly every one seemed to be smoking. 
In Manila the majority of the women occupy 
themselves in chewing the beetle nut, but through 
this region they smoke. They use a very large 
cigar, often fully a foot in length, which they roll 
themselves from their home-grown tobacco. 
These huge cigars last them for many smokes, 
and are often used by the family, being passed 
about among the different members. 

Indications of American influence were seen 
in every village in the good schoolhouses, public 
buildings, and good pike roads. In many of the 
towns American rice and sugar mills were also 
to be seen. 

We came to the end of the railroad across 
the river from this town and had a somewhat 
thrilling experience in getting across the greatly 
swollen stream. We made the distance from the 
depot to the river in little, two-wheeled, bamboo- 
covered carts, drawn by very diminutive ponies. 
On reaching the Banang River, we found it a 
raging torrent, fully half a mile wide. We could 
hear the ocean breakers booming half a mile 
below, at the mouth of the river. There was a 

38 



THROUGH WATER-SOAKED LUZON. 

sand bar about a third of the way across. Pas- 
sengers were being taken to this island on small, 
bamboo rafts, and then through the swiftest 
current in long, heavy canoes, fitted with bam- 
boo outriggers or floats, braced out from the 
sides. We feared the risk in using the rafts, 
and they brought over the large canoe for us. 
Into this we loaded ourselves and our baggage. 
There were six paddlers, a steersman, and four 
men to help with a rope if necessary. These 
latter walked along the bank and pulled us a long 
way up stream before we started across. This 
was done on account of the terrific current, 
which bore the boat down stream with great 
rapidity after we had started. Then the men 
took their places and worked with great vigor 
with their paddle-like oars to get us across. All 
of the men were obliged to leap out in the mid- 
dle of the river where the water was compara- 
tively shallow and push us far up stream again 
in order to make the landing place. After this 
precaution and a strong, rapid pull with the 
paddlers, we made the other side. 

We were again impressed with the contra- 
dictions evident out here, when we stepped out 
of the primitive outrigger canoe and climbed into 
a big American automobile waiting to bring us 
a distance of six miles to this town. This run 
was made over a splendid stone and coral road 
as smooth as a floor. This is one of the Govern- 
ment improvements under American direction. 
39 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

The automobile brought us to the San Fernando 
hotel, a fairly good hostel, built of native lumber 
and owned by a West Indian Negro. We had 
hoped to go by automobile the remaining one 
hundred and twenty miles to our station at Vigan, 
but the terrific rains have so swollen the rivers 
and destroyed portions of the road that we can- 
not get through. The only way to make the 
remaining part of the journey now is to wait 
here for the steamer, which leaves Manila to- 
morrow and touches here the day after. We are 
very much disappointed in this delay for we had 
hoped to be in Vigan with the workers for Sun- 
day. 

San Fernando, August 2 2d. 

We are in the midst of both the rainy and 
the typhoon season, and rain has fallen in tor- 
rents most of last night and to-day. The water 
comes down by the bucketful and it seems like 
a continual cloudburst. Last night when the 
rain began to come into my room, I got up to 
shut the window, and before I could get it closed 
I was drenched. The rivers are too high for 
crossing, both behind and before us, and the 
news of a typhoon at sea may keep the boat 
from sailing, so we may be marooned here for 
a week or so. 

This morning early we went to the native 
market and spent an interesting hour. The mar- 
ket is held every Saturday in the yard of the 
40 



THROUGH WATER-SOAKED LUZON. 

municipal building. A great company of buyers 
and sellers gather and, under sheds and in the 
open, cariry on the sale of their wares. These 
people are quiet and orderly and do their buy- 
ing and selling in a mild, gentle way. They are 
apparently good bargain makers, but are not 
at all demonstrative in their manner. The list 
of articles for sale was a long one. The women 
seem to look after nearly all the trading. There 
was a row of women squatted on their mats 
selling rice, which they measured out in little 
square boxes ; another group sold vegetables and 
greens, still another dealt entirely in fish. There 
were groups selling pottery, yams, meats, bam- 
boo hats, palm-leaf rain cloaks, kerosene, tobacco, 
eggs, and many other articles. Nearly all the 
women smoked their long, homemade cigars. 
We learned to-day that these huge cigars last 
the users for several days, sometimes a week. 
They smoke them a while and then lay them 
aside for use when the desire comes again. We 
learned also that the public schools have made 
a great change in the school girls in this regard. 
They have prohibited smoking on the school 
grounds and taught against it until very few of 
the public school or high school girls now use 
tobacco. 

We have spent several hours to-day with the 
missionaries of the United Brethren Church, go- 
ing over their work and conferring with them. 
This is the center of their field in Luzon. While 
41 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

their work is not large in the island, it seems to 
be well organized and very effective. They have 
one family and two single women here, and a 
man and his wife further up the coast. This 
last missionary happened to be here to-day, and 
we had a good conference all together. They are 
devoted people and show a fine spirit. They 
have the prettiest church building here we have 
seen in the island. It is of concrete and cost 
$5,000. Their press is also located here, and the 
two single women are conducting a girls' Bible 
training school and dormitory. It is very help- 
ful and suggestive to see the work of these 
fellow missionaries and one profits greatly by 
their experience. 

San Fernando, Sunday, August 2jd. 

Dr. Lemmon, of Manila, is traveling north 
with us, and there came to see him to-day a 
woman who has been recently treated by him 
in his hospital there. Her exhibition of joy on 
seeing him led us to inquire into the case. It 
seems that she and her people were poor folks 
of the mountains back of here, who were Cath- 
olics, but who also held to many of the pagan 
superstitions of the mountain tribes. This 
woman came to the period of childbirth and 
could not deliver her child. The old women 
midwives who attended her, finding that all their 
efforts failed, called in the priest, and the aid 
of the Virgin Mary and the saints were impor- 
42 



THROUGH WATER-SOAKED LUZON. 

tuned. The regular fees exacted by the church 
for such services were paid, although the people 
were very poor. Still the woman was unrelieved, 
and the case grew very critical. These people 
believe in the power of evil spirits and made 
sacrifices of chickens and offered rice outside 
the door in propitiation. They also made use 
of charms prepared by the old women necro- 
mancers of the village. All of this was of no 
avail, and in desperation five strong men were 
called in to aid by physical efforts the poor 
woman. When it seemed that she would die, a 
hurried call was sent to the United Brethren 
missionary here, who is not a physician, but 
who understands something of medicine and had 
dispensed remedies to many of the people. He 
saw the terrible condition of the woman and told 
her people that the only possible hope for her 
was to hurriedly take her to Manila, one hun- 
dred and twenty miles away. Following their 
Romanist custom, they gave her a little "sacred" 
candle that it might be lighted in case death 
should approach. She was too weak to hold 
it, so they twisted it about her emaciated fingers. 
She was placed in a blanket, to which a bamboo 
pole was attached, and thus carried on the shoul- 
ders of two men several miles to the river. 
Across this a fording was made in a dugout- 
outrigger canoe, and then the poor sufferer was 
placed on the train. A mat was put on one of 
the seats and on this she made her way, with 
43 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

her husband, the long, rough days' journey to 
Manila. Although the woman seemed near 
death, Dr. Lemmon through an operation re- 
lieved her, and a month's stay in the hospital 
made her a well woman. While in the hospital 
both she and her husband were greatly moved 
by the kindness and skill of Dr. Lemmon, who 
had saved her life, and under his direction began 
to study the Bible. The husband also attended 
every chapel service in the hospital during his 
stay. As a consequence, before leaving both of 
these people expressed their desire to be bap- 
tized. As they lived near the United Brethren 
mission, Dr. Lemmon advised them to unite with 
the United Brethren church at San Fernando. 
This they did, and during the few months that 
have elapsed they have shown their sincerity by 
leading others of their family into the church. 
As Dr. Lemmon bade this good woman good- 
bye to-day, she seized his hands, covered them 
with kisses, and with the tears raining down her 
cheeks thanked him for the healing of her body 
and the leading of her soul to Christ. The doctor 
was very much moved and said to us : "Do you 
wonder that we love these people and had rather 
be here than any place else in the world. The 
largest physician's salary in America would not 
compare with the compensation this woman has 
given me to-day." Each of our physicians in 
the Philippines has many such cases in the his- 
tory of his work. 

44 



By Boat, Baca, and Balsa. 

Vigafif Ilocos Sur. Tuesday, August 25th. 

It would be difficult to crowd into twenty- 
four hours more varied experiences of travel 
than we have just had in that time. Because of 
the continued downpour of rain we were unable 
to proceed to this place overland, so yesterday- 
evening we embarked in a tobacco steamer from 
San Fernando. This is a small, flat-bottomed 
steamer of fifteen hundred tons, called the Mau- 
ban. It plies between Manila and Appari, at 
the northeast point of the island of Luzon, and 
has a bad reputation as to the comfort of pas- 
sengers. It was but lightly loaded, and this 
added to the fact that we sailed but thirty hours 
after a typhoon had passed, leaving a very rough 
sea, made our journey most miserable. Other 
people who have sailed the seas may have been 
just as seasick as we were, but it is doubtful if 
any one ever experienced more different kinds 
of seasickness than we did. In the first place, the 
smell of the ship gave us a certain kind of nausea ; 
then the greasy, garlicky ship's food that we 
were foolish enough to try to eat before she 
45 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

sailed gave us another type. After sailing, we 
were conscious of a peculiar sensation of mal de 
mere from the fact that our cabins were in the 
stern and we received the full benefit of the 
bucking-broncho kind of pitching of which the 
ship has a sort of its own. But this was not all. 
We were directly over the propeller, which, be- 
cause of the roughness of the sea, seemed to be 
out of the water fully half of the time. Every 
time this occurred the propeller spun with 
greatly accelerated speed, which made the boat 
vibrate like a dog shaking himself after a duck- 
ing. It is simply impossible to describe or dia- 
gram the extraordinary feeling which settled 
upon one when this occurred. And then, last 
but' not least, the cabins were too stifling to be 
endurable, so the men in our party persuaded 
the cabin boys to bring our bedding to the upper 
deck and place us on cots so that we could have 
the benefit of the air. Along in the night the 
sea became so rough that our cots began to glide 
across the deck, so we placed Professor Bower 
in the center, where he could hold on to an iron 
post and anchor us by allowing us to hold to his 
cot. Mr. Doan and his son wisely went below, 
choosing the stifling staterooms rather than the 
rollicking deck. Along toward morning the wind 
blew the blanket off of Professor Bower, and 
in an unguarded moment he released his hold 
on the post and arose to rescue it. Just as he 
loosened his grip on the post the ship tilted rad- 

46 



BY BOAT, BACA, AND BALSA. 

ically to port and I and my cot shot across the 
deck with lightning-like rapidity. The force of 
my flight was slightly slackened by the fact that 
my cot crashed into half a dozen rattan deck 
chairs that had preceded me toward the railing. 
Before I could recover myself, Professor Bower, 
who had wildly followed me across the deck with 
involuntary speed and much less dignity than he 
usually has at his command, landed upon my 
stomach with his two hundred pounds of weight, 
and before any apologies were forthcoming, the 
ship had tilted violently to starboard and both 
of us, piled on top of my cot, were speeding 
with amazing rapidity in the opposite direction. 
In the middle of the deck we encountered the 
iron post with Professor Bower acting as the 
cushion of contact. By some marvelous provi- 
dence he escaped serious injury and, abandoning 
himself to the instinct of self-preservation, threw 
his arms wildly about the post and clung for dear 
life. I myself in turn felt strangely drawn to 
the professor and gripped him in a fond em- 
brace. By this united action we stopped the 
mad game of ping-pong we had begun to play 
and had time to lie on our backs, gripping with 
our hands our improvised anchor and with our 
minds trying to analyze the new sensation of 
seasickness which this startling experience had 
given us. 

Some people have seasickness when a ship 
pitches — ^that is, when it teeters endwise on the 
47 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

swells or seas; other people find themselves 
especially susceptible to the motions of a ship 
when it rolls from side to side. The China Sea 
is famous for its ability to make a ship go both 
ways at the same time, and very few people can 
withstand the combination. Add to this peculiar 
conceit of this famous sea the weak resistance 
offered by a small, half-loaded, flat-bottomed 
tobacco boat and you have a combination of sur- 
prising motions which brings the proudest spirit 
to grief. The nearest description of this move- 
ment that one can think of is an accelerated wal- 
low, and the approximate feeling that one has 
concerning his own anatomy during this motion, 
is that his whole body is swinging in three direc- 
tions at once while his stomach is revolving en- 
tirely on a separate axis of its own. 

After a little short of twelve hours of this 
sort of thing it was announced that we had 
reached the harbor of Salomague. The ship 
dropped anchor far out in the bay, but as the 
sea was running very high even here, our hasty 
toilet was made with lingering misgivings and 
we made ready our baggage for unloading with 
faltering steps and pale, expressionless faces. 
The natives had come out with crude, home- 
made boats, which they kept alongside with diffi- 
culty, and we were let down into them for pas- 
sage ashore. The only thing which kept us from 
fear of ever getting safely ashore through the 
wildly tossing sea was the fact that we were so 

48 






f *f t 



*■ f a 








Normal School graduates, Philippine Islands. Caribou 
cart. Irrigation system of the Ifugao, mountain tribe, Philip- 
pine Islands. 



BY BOAT, BACA, AND BALSA. 

miserable that any possibility was looked upon 
with indifference. The men in these strange, 
frail-looking boats were really skillful in the 
handling of their craft and got us ashore without 
taking a bucketful of water. 

We landed at a little village composed of 
half a dozen bamboo houses and a warehouse 
of the same material. Here we found one of 
our Filipino evangelists, who had ridden in fif- 
teen miles from his station to meet us and guide 
us on our way. He informed us that the heavy 
rains had destroyed bridges and portions of the 
road, and that we would have to make the thirty- 
five miles by ox-cart and pony buggies instead 
of automobile. He had five of these oxen and 
little covered carts ready for us, and we soon 
departed, after reading a telegram from Mr. 
Hanna, of Vigan, who wired to "embark" in 
the carts and he would meet us half way on our 
journey with the pony buggies. 

The little carts, or cartonas, as the natives 
call them, are made entirely of bamboo, save 
the wheels, and the cover resembles very much 
a huge poke sunbonnet. You sit cramped up in- 
side on the bamboo slat bottom, and bump along 
without any springs under you, while the driver 
sits on the front edge of the box, almost astride 
his oxen, and gets an indifferent speed out of it 
with a sharp stick. We had a downpour of rain 
about every half hour, and our cart drivers kept 
most of the rain out of the open front of our 
49 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

carts and also from their own shoulders by 
throwing about them their stiff, outstanding 
capes, made of palm leaves. The road is a good 
one, kept up by the Government, and we got on 
easily across the small streams until we reached 
one of the larger rivers, where Mr. Hanna was 
awaiting us with a two-pony buggy and a cov- 
ered spring cart pulled by two very diminutive 
ponies. Here we dismissed all of the ox-carts 
save one, which was reserved for our hand bag- 
gage and Dr. Lemmon, who volunteered to fol- 
low us in the slower way. We did not proceed, 
however, until we had stopped for dinner, very 
kindly prepared for us by a Filipino gentleman 
and his wife, important people in their village. 
The good man escorted us upstairs to their living 
apartments, for a Filipino never lives on the 
first floor of his house. Although this was the 
best house in the town, a flock of sheep were 
occupying the ground floor. These good people 
set before us boiled rice, fried eggs, canned sar- 
dines, and fresh rain-water for drinking. We 
had been able to take no breakfast. This, to- 
gether with our long cart journey, had put a keen 
edge to our appetites and we gave an exceedingly 
good account of ourselves, much to the satisfac- 
tion of our host and hostess. 

When we came to our first river we found 
it a raging torrent, although in the dry season 
it is but a small, insignificant stream. The Gov- 
ernment has built a large concrete bridge here, 
50 



BY BOAT, BACA, AND BALSA. 

but the rains came on before one of the abut- 
ments could be finished and it was useless for 
crossing with vehicles. We crossed the bridge 
on foot, climbing down from the unfinished 
abutment on a long bamboo ladder, the lower 
end of which rested in a bamboo cart, to which 
was hitched a water buffalo, or caribou. The 
wheels were removed from our vehicles by vil- 
lagers who volunteered to help, and then the 
buggy and the cart carried across by about a 
dozen of them, who held their burdens above 
their heads and waded arm-pit deep through the 
rushing water. The little ponies partly waded 
and partly swam across. We crossed the next 
river by having thirteen nearly naked natives 
around each vehicle, who pulled and pushed and 
yelled and struggled until we gained the other 
shore. Just before reaching Vigan we came to 
the largest stream, across which we were taken 
on a bamboo raft. The raft was pushed up to 
the shore, our vehicles driven onto it, and then 
we were poled across by the native raftsmen. 
Thus after about eight hours of varied overland 
and through-water experiences we reached Vi- 
gan. It was a hard day's work, but we should 
not complain for our missionaries are subject 
to such journeys many times during the year. 



51 



VI. 
With the Workers In Vigan. 

Vigan, Thursday, August 26th. 

Still it rains. The water has been coming 
down for eight days now almost continually. 
All streams are far out of their banks and travel 
is impossible. The typhoon signal is up, which 
indicates that one is raging very near us at sea. 
While the wind rages at sea, the water pours 
down on land. This will probably mean another 
week of rain. Dr. Lemmon has been telling us 
of forty-one inches of rain in twenty-four hours, 
and we thought he was telling us a Munchausen 
yarn until he showed that the Government report 
indicated a fall of forty-two inches in twenty- 
four hours and seventy-eight inches in forty- 
eight hours during a prolonged cloudburst in the 
mountains ! 

We have received a warm welcome here from 
the three missionary families, the Hannas, Mc- 
Callums, and the Klines. Mr. and Mrs. Hanna, 
who are our pioneer missionaries to the Philip- 
pines, live in the central mission house. Their 
building is also occupied by the missionary press. 
Mr. and Mrs. McCallum occupy the new mis- 
52 



WITH THE WORKERS IN VIGAN. 

sionary home next to the Bible college dormi- 
tory, also new. Mr. McCallum is in charge of 
the college. Dr. and Mrs. Kline live in a large 
Philippine house improvised into a hospital and 
residence. This is a strong center for evangel- 
istic work, and we have many churches in the 
villages and towns round about. The influence 
of this work also extends far up the Abra River 
into the hills and mountains back of here, where 
the real pagan people live who have never been 
touched by the Romanism which became the re- 
ligion of the Ilocano people of the lowlands. 
This is a very strong Catholic center, being the 
residence of a bishop, who is one of the few 
American priests in the island. He is very bitter 
against the missionaries and uses every means 
to counteract their work. However, the efforts 
of our workers are splendidly rewarded here in 
the surrounding country. To illustrate the 
methods of this priest it is necessary but to re- 
count a recent experience of Mr. Hanna's. The 
American Bible Society through its agents is 
selling and distributing large numbers of Scrip- 
tures and portions of the Scriptures among the 
people. Not long ago they sent their moving 
picture machine to this city, and Mr. Hanna gave 
a series of lectures on the Bible. Ten cents ad- 
mission was charged, and with each admission 
a copy of the Gospels in the Ilocano tongue 
was given. In this way about twelve hundred 
books were distributed. The priest became 
53 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

alarmed at the number of Scriptures in the hands 
of the people and resorted to strategy to secure 
them. He also gave a moving picture lecture 
and charged for admission one copy of the Gos- 
pels. By this means he secured about five hun- 
dred copies that had been distributed, and 
burned them in the Catholic school grounds, be- 
fore the children. This coup of the priest has 
been heralded far and wide in both the islands 
and in America as a great defeat for the Prot- 
estants. As a matter of fact, it appears that 
most of the families which first secured the 
books are still in possession of at least one copy, 
and from all indications these Gospels are being 
widely read. This is all the missionaries could 
wish, for an open Bible in the hands of the 
people is the best possible opening for effective 
missionary work. 

The mission press here is doing a fine work 
under Mr. Hanna's direction. A weekly paper 
is published in the native tongue with a subscrip- 
tion list of about three thousand; also a small 
monthly paper in English, which keeps many of 
the people in the homeland in touch with the 
work. The press also turns out many tracts, 
leaflets, and booklets which are a great aid to the 
work. The Sunday-school supplies in the Ilo- 
cano tongue also go out from this press. One 
can hardly measure the value of a publication 
such as the monthly paper, which goes into 
such a number of the homes. The people 
54 



WITH THE WORKERS IN VIGAN. 

have very little reading matter, and the con- 
tents of this paper are eagerly read. It fur- 
nishes a fine medium for teaching and also for 
suggested direction of the native churches. We 
have an excellent new Bible college dormitory 
here, built of reinforced concrete, and filled with 
nearly fifty students. About one half of these 
are young men studying for the ministry, and 
the rest are high-school pupils from out of town 
who rent rooms in the dormitory and are thus 
under the influence of Mr. McCallum, our man 
in charge of the school. These high-school pu- 
pils must take some work in Bible study in order 
to room in the dormitory, and a valuable work 
is being done among them. Professor McCallum 
has a fine looking group of students who are 
preparing for the ministry. This sort of work 
is one of the most important things to be done 
in Christianizing the Philippines. Native leader- 
ship for the church is the hope of the future 
here, as everywhere in mission lands. Mr. 
Hanna and the other workers are endeavoring 
to throw the responsibility for leadership and 
support on the native churches just as fast as 
possible. 

One's heart is made to ache by the miserable 
equipment at the disposal of Dr. Kline for his 
medical work here. He has an old, rambling, 
uninviting Filipino residence which he has con- 
verted as best he could into a hospital and a 
residence for his family. The building leaks, 
55 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

is dingy, and he has a hard time making it sani- 
tary. It is the best he can rent, and he is 
patiently waiting until the Society can provide 
him a hospital for this great, needy field. Dr. 
Pickett's hospital, at Laoag, sixty miles north, is 
the nearest one in that direction, and there is 
none south of here until you reach Manila, two 
hundred miles away. If the people in the home- 
land could see the heroic efforts of this good 
man to carry on the work under such trying 
circumstances, and could also see the pitiful need 
of these people for medical assistance, their 
hearts would surely be opened. In spite of the 
handicap. Dr. Kline is doing a fine work and 
reaching many people. We were to-day looking 
up a better place that might be rented until the 
hospital could be built, and also a separate house 
in which he, his wife and two little children 
might live, for no doctor ought to be asked to 
house his family in this hospital building. We 
think we have found a better place for them. 

One who wishes to know the problems of 
both the missionaries and the Society should 
have been with us yesterday and to-day, as all 
day and far into the night we held our confer- 
ences together and studied and planned for the 
work. The continuous rain has kept us from 
looking about and visiting the chapels and the 
people, but it has shut us up to a real study 
of the problems and opportunities of the work. 

We have studied the occupation of new fields, 

56 



WITH THE WORKERS IN VIGAN. 

and the missionaries have pressed upon us the 
claims of the pagan mountain people back fifty 
miles from here, who formerly were head hunt- 
ers, and among whom no Christian work has 
ever been done. We have a few little bands 
of Disciples along the edge of this tribe, and the 
door is wide open for a station and a real work 
among them. However, an equally strong call 
comes from Appari, on the northeast coast, a 
great, rich section in the Cagayan Valley, where 
we have a group of churches ministered to by 
Filipino evangelists for a number of years, and 
to whom we made the promise of a missionary 
long ago. It does seem pitiful that we cannot 
undertake this mountain work among these 
hardy, untouched people, who are so susceptible. 
The Belgian Catholic priests are already begin- 
ning work among them, and in a few years they 
will have an inferior and incomplete type of 
Christianity, which will make it so much harder 
to reach them. An investment of $5,000 a year 
for ten years among these people would mean 
more than one can measure for the transforma- 
tion of a whole tribe. 

To-night a service was held for us in our 
Filipino church here, and although the rain 
poured down, the commodious chapel was filled 
and many people were standing. The work looks 
very substantial here, and we were impressed 
with the intelligence and interest of the congre- 
gation. After a number of special songs by the 
57 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

choir and an excellent male quartet, Mr. Doan, 
Professor Bower, and I spoke to the people 
through the interpretation of one of the Bible 
students who understands English well. All of 
the young people who have attended the public 
schools understand English, for that is the lan- 
guage of instruction. 



S8 



VII. 
Interesting Laoag. 

Laoag, Sunday night, August ^oth. 

After an interesting but difficult journey yes- 
terday, by pony cart, raft, and auto, we reached 
Laoag. 

This has been a busy and a happy day. We 
began early with worship, happy fellowship, and 
a good meal at the breakfast table, then we went 
to the church at 8 : 30. Our Filipino brethren 
meet in a comfortable frame chapel lined with 
swale, or bamboo matting. Almost opposite this 
is a great, crumbling Catholic cathedral — in use, 
but in very poor repair. In the old Spanish days 
these cathedrals were built and kept up through 
forced labor from the Filipinos, but now, since 
that compulsory tax is gone, the Catholics find 
it very difficult to even keep them in repair. 

There were about one hundred and fifty peo- 
ple present at the church service. A quartet 
of bright young people sang "Since I've been 
redeemed" and several other familiar hymns, and 
the people joined well in the congregational sing- 
ing, all in the Ilocano tongue. We were im- 
pressed with the reverence and quiet gentleness 
of the people. The men and boys were all 
59 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

dressed in white, and the modest little Filipino 
girls and women presented a pleasing spectacle 
in their neat dresses with the big transparent 
sleeves and immense, high-standing collars of 
the same fluffy material. This peculiar dress 
furnished a quaint background for their smooth 
little brown faces and dark, sparkling eyes. 

We enjoyed here our first communion service 
with the Filipino people, and it was very sweet 
indeed. One of the elders of the congregation 
is a devoted old man, and before his conversion 
was a notable drunkard and gambler, who spent 
most of his time cock fighting. He has four 
children who are active workers in the church. 
The congregation and the church service com- 
pared very favorably indeed with the same at 
home. The work in Laoag has only been es- 
tablished about twelve years. This church is 
the center for a large district in Ilocos Norte 
province, and we have many churches in the 
villages round about. W. H. Hanna was the 
pioneer in this field and did a splendid work 
in establishing the cause and evangelizing the 
country. Dr. and Mrs. Pickett have been here 
for nearly ten years, and their medical work 
and all-around ministry among the people has 
made a marked impression. Miss Sylvia Sieg- 
fried, who is now home on furlough, has been 
associated with them for about seven years, and 
she has done a very strong work among the 
women and children. She has worked far be- 
60 



INTERESTING LAOAG. 

yond her strength, even taking long evangeHstic 
trips into the country on horseback or in ox- 
cart. Mr. Saunders has been associated with 
the Picketts for nearly two years now. He is 
an enthusiastic, hard-working young man of 
good training, who has already enlisted much 
love and respect on the part of the Filipinos. 

I was called upon to speak to the people, and 
did the best I could through Mr. Hanna as in- 
terpreter. It is a most difficult process and one 
feels like an automatic dummy while attempting 
it. One speaks a few sentences in his own 
tongue and then pursues the policy of "watchful 
waiting" while the interpreter does the real 
speaking intelligible to the audience. 

The Sunday-school was well attended, and 
conducted in proper style by a Filipino super- 
intendent. At the earnest request of the mis- 
sionaries, Mr. Doan spoke to the large class of 
young men, telling them how the great class at 
Nelsonville, Ohio, was built up man by man. 
There were nearly forty young men in the class, 
most of them from the high school, and they 
were much moved by the talk. At the close Mr. 
Doan showed them the picture of the Nelson- 
ville class, taken when there were nearly nine 
hundred present, and they could hardly believe 
their eyes. There were many expressions from 
them afterwards as to their determination to 
build up a larger class. 

One of the sweetest songs used in the Sunday- 
6i 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

school was "There is sunlight in my soul to-day," 
the first verse of which ran as follows: 

Naraniag daytog aldow ita, 

Tay pusoe naraniag, 
Nya awan ti macapoda 

Ni Jesus ti Lawag. 

There is something very inspiring in listening 
to our familiar gospel hymns sung in a foreign 
tongue. 

When the superintendent called for a show 
of Bibles, forty-three were held up. The readi- 
ness with which the people read the Bible is 
the most hopeful sign in the islands. Before the 
coming of the Protestant missionary the Bible 
was a closed Book to any but the friar. Even 
now the priests in the Romanist church do all 
they can to keep the Scriptures out of the hands 
of the people, even going so far as to publicly 
burn copies they can get hold of. But the public 
school and the freedom of American ideals are 
giving the people liberty of thought and action, 
and the old, ruthless power of the Roman church 
has been largely broken. No nation has yet be- 
come great in the real sense where the Bible 
was not an open Book. What a travesty on the 
Spirit of Christ it is to deny people the right to 
read his printed words, when the common peo- 
ple heard him gladly during his ministry on 
earth ! 

The leaders in the Laoag church go out in 
the city Sunday afternoon and conduct schools 
62 



INTERESTING LAOAG. 

and classes in many different places. There were 
nearly eight hundred taught in this way in the 
city to-day. Our people have two thousand in 
the Sunday-schools of this province. In the 
midst of the Sunday-school service a Catholic 
funeral procession passed the church, led by a 
brass band playing a very noisy and lively air. 
The casket was supported on a highly orna- 
mented platform carried on the shoulders of four 
men. 

At the close of the Sunday-school a number 
of the young people went to the jail with Mr. 
Saunders and conducted a service for the pris- 
oners. 

This afternoon an English preaching service 
was held in Dr. Pickett's home, where about 
twenty-five Americans gathered. They are 
school teachers, Government officials, engineers, 
and their wives. Professor Bower preached a 
strong sermon on the social task Christianity 
offers, and paid a hearty tribute to the work 
of the American in the island. The American 
school teacher in the Philippines has been a real 
missionary, and what they have done is a marvel 
to all who observe. In the main their service 
has been an unselfish, altruistic one. Eighteen 
days after Manila fell, seven schools were opened 
there. The friars, realizing what this would 
mean for the religious freedom of the people, 
put obstructions in the way, but failed to stop 
or discourage the work. Nothing has created 

63 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

a more profound respect among the people than 
the work of the American Government in plant- 
ing schools. While Aguinaldo was still fighting 
America we had established more than one thou- 
sand schools, and in 1901 there were one thou- 
sand American teachers in the islands. There 
are now ten thousand public school teachers, the 
great majority of them Filipinos, but every one 
teaching school in the English tongue. 

This afternoon was spent in conference with 
the missionaries on their work and problems, 
and this evening a most interesting Christian 
Endeavor service was held in the church. The 
house was full, and the first on the program 
was a debate by six young high-school students 
on whether the proposed girls' Bible training 
school, which we hope to establish, should be 
located at Laoag or at Vigan. The members of 
our Commission were very much embarrassed 
by being called on to act as judges in the con- 
test. The boys put up a strong debate in Eng- 
lish, covering their points with quite rare skill, 
and certainly with ingenuity. It appeared to us 
that the contest was very close, but the Laoag 
side seemed to have made a few points over those 
representing Vigan. We therefore proclaimed 
the Laoag side the winner, not before very care- 
fully stating, however, that our decision was 
simply based on the arguments of the evening, 
without any reference to what the final decision 
would be as to the location of the school. 

64 




An American public school in Philippines, with ruins of 
old Romanist school in background. Corn food exhibition, 
Philippine Islands. Group of evangelistic students, Manila. 



INTERESTING LAOAG. 

Following the debate, the members of the 
Commission spoke briefly, and Mr. Hanna closed 
with an address to the people in Ilocano. His 
visit is greatly appreciated by the people, who 
love him dearly, and he held the people in rapt 
attention while he spoke. He has mastered the 
language as few others have done, and has a 
great hold on the people. His evangelistic work 
in all the Ilocanos field has borne much fruit for 
the Master. While the larger part of evangeliza- 
tion will be increasingly left to trained Filipino 
leaders, yet for many years there will be a large 
work for the American missionary evangelist 
here. He needs to open new territory, visit out- 
stations, superintend the work of native evan- 
gelists, and be a real advisory New Testament 
bishop to all the churches, much as was Paul in 
the apostolic days. To be sure, he must con- 
stantly, besides all this, do the regular work of 
an evangelist. 

While the work in the Philippine Islands has 
been very successful, one must not think that 
the missionary has an easy time of it — far from 
it. Some of the difficulties which stand out most 
strikingly are the bitter and insistent opposition 
of the Romanists, the deep-rooted superstition 
of the people, the lack of initiative on the part 
of the people, and the long wet season, which 
practically ties up much of the work for about 
five months of the year. 



6s 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

Monday noon, August 31st. 

We have been much delayed in getting to 
Laoag because of the rains, and now because of 
the war we learn that the only sure way to get 
from the Philippines to China is by way of the 
steamer Mongolia, scheduled to sail from Manila 
September 5th. This necessitates our leaving 
to-day for Vigan and Manila, and it will be a 
hard task to get through on time anyway. We 
have spent the morning studying Dr. Pickett's 
hospital, and looking through the city high 
school with Mr. Saunders. The hospital here 
was provided by R. A. Long, and is called the 
Sallie Long Reed Memorial, in memory of his 
sister. His gift was $7,500, and it is hard to 
imagine how such a sum could be spent to greater 
advantage for the help of the suffering. Dr. 
Pickett has constructed a large concrete build- 
ing, with hospital, dispensary, chapel, and nurses' 
quarters in it. Here he treats thousands of pa- 
tients during the year, and dispenses Christian 
teaching as well as medicine. His work here for 
so many years has secured for him a strong grip 
on the people, and they come from all directions 
for his ministration. He has to be druggist as 
well as physician, and he also has a dental de- 
partment with a native man in charge. 

The Government has so valued his work that 

a subsidy of $1,800 has been granted him for this 

year to help in the work. He is just now doing 

some remarkable work in trying to rid his prov- 

66 



INTERESTING LAOAG. 

ince of the dread ailment called the yaws — a 
syphilitic disease which manifests itself in hor- 
rible running sores on the body, often attacking 
the nostrils and mouth. He treats these patients 
with a new remedy which is injected into the 
blood, and has had uniform success in healing 
the plague. An ox-cart load of five people, all 
of the same family and each suffering from this 
terrible ailment, came to the hospital this morn- 
ing. They presented a most pitiful spectacle, and 
their joy was unbounded when the doctor as- 
sured them that he could heal them. 

We went to the hospital with the doctor at 
eight o'clock, and he began his day's work with 
chapel, at which his five nurse assistants, together 
with such patients as were able, gathered. The 
service consisted of songs, prayer, and a talk, 
which at this service was given by Dr. Lemmon, 
who spent two years in the work here while Dr. 
Pickett was home on furlough. He spoke espe- 
cially to the nurses, and his words were very 
tender as he talked of their long vigils at night 
and urged them to be faithful, taking as his text 
Jesus's experience with his disciples in the gar- 
den, where he asked them if they could not 
watch with him one hour. 

After the chapel the doctor attended his clinic, 
prescribing and giving treatment to those who 
were in need. After this he showed us through 
the hospital. We were deeply impressed with 
the efficiency of this religious healing plant. 
&7 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

More patients are treated here than in many- 
hospitals at home costing fully twenty times as 
much, and the purpose of this institution is the 
healing of the soul as well as the body. The 
medical missionary heals people because they 
need healing, but he also uses his ministration to 
the body as a doorway into the realm of the 
spirit. Our own mission has emphasized medical 
missions more than any other Society in both the 
Philippines and the Congo, and the wisdom of 
this type of work is very evident. 

After visiting the hospital, Mr. Saunders took 
us to visit the city schools, and impressed upon 
us the wisdom of dormitories for high-school 
students in connection with our mission work. 
We were much interested in the large, provincial 
high school located here, which is a fine example 
of what America has done for its island posses- 
sions in the way of education. We found a 
large, modern, concrete building filled with eager 
students taking the regular high-school work, 
all the classes being conducted in English. The 
principal and four of the teachers are Amer- 
icans, and the rest of the instructors Filipinos. 
We found the students apparently quite as alert 
in geometry, English, and history as one would 
find students of the same grade at home. These 
high-school pupils come from the best families 
over a large district. Moving to the city to get 
their education, they find the little bamboo houses 
of the people poor places to room and board, and 
68 



INTERESTING LAOAG. 

are very anxious to get into a dormitory. The 
mission, by providing such a home for them, can 
exact from them attendance at a daily reHgious 
service and also have the privilege of doing active 
mission work among them. They are always 
glad to pay for their board and room. We have 
such dormitories for high-school pupils at Vigan 
and Manila. 

We have been talking some this morning con- 
cerning a very acute problem which faces nearly 
all the missionaries sooner or later. It is the 
question of the education of the children. Con- 
ditions and social relations are not such on the 
mission fields that parents can keep their chil- 
dren out here for education after they are about 
twelve. This necessitates sending the boys and 
girls home at one of the most critical periods in 
their lives. The eldest daughter of Dr. and Mrs. 
Pickett is now in America for education, and 
soon their oldest boy will likewise have to go. 
This enforced separation is the hardest trial of 
the missionary's experience, and brings a heart- 
ache and an anxiety which the people in the 
homeland do not always properly measure in 
thinking of the missionary's task. The question 
of a lonely field and a strange people to work 
with, which are so dilated upon by many of us 
at home, are small problems indeed when com- 
pared with the long separation from children. 

Dr. Pickett has a fine group of five nurses. 
Their tender ministry gives them a rare oppor- 

69 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

tunity to serve Christ among the patients. They 
are in constant training, studying and receiving 
instruction from Dr. Pickett. His plan is to 
pick out the very best young Filipino Christian 
girls for this work. Four of these nurses can 
be supported for $50 each a year, and his head 
nurse receives $150. Here is a good investment 
for some of the home folks. A similar service 
could be rendered Dr. Kline at Vigan, and Dr. 
Lemmon at Manila at the same figure. Each 
of these doctors have a nurse who spends all 
her time out among the people in the villages, 
nursing, dispensing medicines, and teaching the 
people of Christ. Where would fifty dollars go 
farther or do more good? 



70 



VIII. 
More Difficult Traveling. 

Vigan, Tuesday night, September ist. 

Again we have had some interesting travel 
experience which has grown to be commonplace 
to the missionaries. We left Laoag yesterday- 
noon and rode twenty miles in an American auto 
truck to the Badoc River. The stream had 
fallen considerably, but was still swift and wide. 
We crossed the first section in ox-carts, the sec- 
ond by wading, and the third in various ways. 
Mrs. Doan was carried on the shoulders of two 
sturdy Filipinos, who waded almost to their arm- 
pits in the swift current. Mr. Hanna, Mr. Doan, 
and Austin Doan negotiated the stream by 
stretching themselves out on the shoulders of 
three men each, and Professor Bower and I chose 
to wade with a man on either side to help us. 
There were places where the current was so deep 
and swift that it seemed we would have to push 
our men aside and swim for it, but we finally 
got across without doing so. Mr. and Mrs. Doan 
and Mr. Hanna went on a distance to the town 
in Mr. Hanna's pony buggy, which was waiting 
for us, and the other four of us followed in a 
71 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

pony cart and an ox-cart. At the town of Badoc 
it became necessary to add another pony to the 
bony little animal which pulled our cart. To 
get the pony, mend its harness, and settle upon 
the price took Mr. Hanna and the Filipino men 
interested just an hour and a half. During this 
interim we ate our afternoon lunch and exam- 
ined a ruined cathedral and convent in the center 
of the town. What was once a really remark- 
able structure has now become a crumbling 
wreck. During the days of Spanish friar con- 
trol of the people, the building was constructed 
and kept in repair by a compulsory labor tax. 
Since American intervention and the deporting- 
of the friars, the people have not even kept up 
the repairs. A typhoon has stripped off the 
roof, the rafters have decayed and fallen in, and 
only a very small portion of the huge structure is 
now used for church purposes. This is at the 
rear, and is roofed over with sheet iron. Across 
the street is a fine American schoolhouse with 
the Stars and Stripes flying from it. 

After the second pony for our cart had been 
harnessed and hitched alongside the first one, 
we essayed to start, but our last steed was stub- 
born and would not go. He persisted in biting 
his mate and kicking at the driver. We remedied 
this by putting him inside the shafts and placing 
the other pony in his place on the outside. Al- 
though this gave the obstreperous one more pull- 
ing to do, he moved off with better grace and 



MORE DIFFICULT TRAVELING. 

only balked when we came to a hill. On these 
occasions Professor Bower and I had to get out 
and walk. Darkness came on and it started to 
rain. We gave one umbrella to our driver, who 
sat on the edge of the cart in front of us, and 
put up another to keep the rain from driving into 
the open front of our covered cart. To while 
away the lonely night hours we began to sing 
gospel songs, and to our surprise the driver 
joined in. He sang in Ilocano, but the tunes 
were the same. We sang for a long time and 
the fellow knew almost every gospel hymn we 
sang. Occasionally he would start one we knew 
and we would join in. He was a stranger to us, 
and the songs were the only means we had of 
communication with each other. As we drove 
along the lonely road between the rice paddies, 
with the moon occasionally coming to view be- 
tween showers, a strange sense of peace and 
spiritual fellowship came over us with the songs 
we sang together. A Christian hymn is a won- 
derful common denominator for all races. 
About ten o'clock we came to a difficult river 
spanned by an uncompleted bridge. We left our 
driver to be helped across with his horse and cart 
by a group of native men. We walked on the 
bridge till we had crossed the stream and came 
to the end, twenty feet above the ground. The 
abutment had not been completed and the only 
way of getting down was to find our way along 
a cement wing about six inches thick, which 

73 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

sloped toward the sand below at an angle of 
about forty degrees. It was raining and Pro- 
fessor Bower had the temerity to back down, 
while he stooped over and took hold of the top 
of the concrete as best he could. In the dark- 
ness he resembled a huge top slowly gliding down 
the incline, and once or twice I saw him sway 
dangerously from side to side. He maintained 
his equilibrium sufficiently to reach the end of 
the incline, however, an accomplishment which 
still left him some eight feet above the ground. 
After only a moment of hesitation, he leaped 
courageously off into the darkness, and I heard 
the thud of his feet a moment later in the wet 
sand below. He assured me all was well, and 
I also began the descent. My avoirdupois makes 
it rather uncomfortable to maintain so marked 
a stoop for any great length of time, so I 
had to humbly sit astride of the narrow wing 
and hitch myself gradually down backwards. 
It was still raining, and the professor had 
scraped a liberal supply of mud from his rub- 
bers as he backed down, so my track was 
pretty well greased. The darkness proved to be 
a friend indeed, but the fact that no one saw me 
did not allay my humiliation. Having crossed 
this river, we proceeded about an hour and came 
to another. Our ponies were very tired by this 
time, and stopped in the midst of the stream as 
we tried to ford it. The water was nearly up 
to the bottom of our cart, and the stream very 
74 



MORE DIFFICULT TRAVELING. 

swift. Our driver used every means of urging 
the ponies at his command, but to no avail. We 
had begun to think that we would have to climb 
out and wade when we heard someone shouting 
from the darkness on the other side of the stream. 
It proved to be Mr. Hanna, who, with Mr. and 
Mrs. Doan, was waiting for us. We explained 
our plight to him, and he drove his ponies and 
buggy back to get us. He stopped alongside of 
us in the stream and we climbed from our con- 
veyance into his and thus got across. Our man 
with his ponies finally got through, but we saw 
that his team could not go much farther. By this 
time the ox-cart containing Dr. Lemmon and 
Austin Doan caught up with us, and we pro- 
ceeded to the next village, a mile away, where 
our ponies and spring cart were exchanged for 
a covered bamboo cart and a slow but sure ox. 
We found ourselves very thirsty in this town, 
and although it was midnight. Dr. Lemmon got 
one of the Christians who lived there to build 
a fire and boil us some water. Although the 
water was hot, we found it refreshing. One 
does not dare drink the water in the Philippines 
without careful filtering or boiling. Mr. Hanna 
had again driven on ahead, and we soon fol- 
lowed in the two ox-carts. We snatched a little 
sleep as we jolted along, and about three o'clock 
came to the north branch of the Abra, near 
Vigan, which is very wide and deep and can 
only be crossed on a bamboo raft. Mr. Hanna 
75 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

had discovered that the raftsmen were not work- 
ing after night, and he and his party had taken 
refuge from the rain in an unfinished school- 
house and were sleeping on the cement floor. 
We were glad to join them, and slept soundly 
until about six in the morning, when we all 
crossed with our conveyances to Vigan on a 
large balsa, or bamboo raft. 

We have been very busy during the day hold- 
ing final conferences about the work, visiting 
points of interest in the city, and getting ready 
to start for Manila. 

To-day we saw the high school here at recess 
time. More than five hundred bright boys and 
girls, all neatly clad, were out under the trees, 
getting a bit of fresh air and chatting in groups 
as they enjoyed their intermission. As we walked 
among them and chatted with them in English, 
answering their eager questions about America 
and her schools, we were impressed by the fact 
that here lies the future leadership and hope of 
the Philippines. This is the first generation of 
those who are really being educated. With these 
and their children lies the destiny of the islands. 
No wonder that our missionaries are eager to 
gather these bright young students into dormi- 
tories and lead them to a fuller Christianity. 



76 



IX. 
Heading Toward Manila. 

Dagupan, Luzon, September ^d. 

It rains. It has rained every day and night 
for fourteen days, and with the exception of 
three or four days, the downpour has been al- 
most continuous. This is what much of the wet 
season of four or five months means in the Phil- 
ippines. Our experience for the past two days 
and nights gives us a keen realization of what 
the missionaries out here experience when they 
travel in the wet season — a realization that does 
not come to one without the real experience. 
The terrible war in Europe and the changes 
brought about by it in shipping on the Pacific 
seems to make it necessary for us to leave Manila 
next Monday on the Mongolia, an American 
ship. For this reason we were obliged to leave 
the northern provinces sooner than we at first 
expected. 

Night before last Dr. Lemmon and I left 
Vigan, one of our mission stations, for Salo- 
mague, the ship port, twenty-five miles north, 
where all the coastwise ships can stop in stormy 
weather. An automobile makes the trip when 
77 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

the rivers are not too high, but as there were 
six in our party and the auto would only hold 
four besides the driver, Dr. Lemmon and I chose 
to travel on ahead by baca, or ox-cart. Our ship 
was due to stop at from ten to twelve in the 
morning, so we began our journey at eight o'clock 
in the evening and traveled all night, except two 
hours, during which our driver insisted on sleep- 
ing. Mr. Hanna succeeded in securing a cart 
with springs, and Mrs. Hanna fitted us up with 
a piece of matting and four pillows to soften 
the hard, bamboo floor of the cart. With the 
exception of the wheels, these carts are com- 
posed entirely of bamboo, even to the poke-bon- 
net like top which protects one from the rays 
of the sun or the rain. We placed in the cart 
our handbags, our bottles of boiled water, and 
our lunch, and proceeded to the river, just at the 
edge of Vigan. The missionaries went this far 
with us to bid us good-bye. It was hard to 
leave these good people, who had been so very 
kind to us and in whose good work we had come 
to be so deeply interested. 

We made less than two miles an hour dur- 
ing the night, but as it rained almost continu- 
ously and we were fairly comfortable inside, 
we did not mind. We went over the Govern- 
ment road, and where it had not been washed 
out by the rains it was quite good. The baca 
was not long enough for us to lie down in, nor 
wide enough for us to sit side by side; neither 

78 



HEADING TOWARD MANILA. 

was there any kind of a seat in it. By using 
our grips and a cushion each to lean against, 
another cushion on which to sit, and by dispos- 
ing ourselves each with our heads at opposite 
ends of the cart, we were able to wedge in quite 
satisfactorily. Our driver sat squat on two bam- 
boo rods just back of the ox, and by dint of 
much shouting and jerking at a rope fastened 
in the nose of his animal, he kept us on the move. 
As the morning advanced our oxen became 
slower and slower, and the men more indifferent 
as to their speed. The doctor used every device 
of argument, but to no avail. Finally we got out 
and walked, thinking that the lightened load 
would increase the speed and that our getting 
ahead would shame the driver to greater effort. 
All of this was of no avail and we only perspired 
and fretted and were obliged to wait for our 
slow carts to catch up when we reached a stream 
we could not cross. These Eastern people are 
utterly unable to understand the bustle of the 
American. To them a few hours or days make 
no difference, and missing a boat only means 
sitting down and waiting for another, which is a 
very pleasant task to them. A traveling man 
who followed us on this journey, likewise with 
a cart, became greatly exasperated for fear he 
would lose his boat. He kept shouting "sigue," 
the native word for "hurry," but the driver only 
smiled and kept placidly but slowly on. Then 
the man said he threatened not to pay the driver 
79 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

if he did not hurry, but this did not cause any 
acceleration of speed. Finally he tried to ex- 
plain how much he wished to catch the boat. 
The only rejoinder he got was a smile and the 
statement that if he missed this boat there was 
another four days later that he could get. The 
man stated that he was so exasperated that he 
seized the ox's tail himself and began to twist it. 
The animal responded for a few hundred feet 
and then seemed to get used to the sensation and 
settled down to its slow jog, much to the amuse- 
ment of the driver. Kipling was right when he 
said: 

'Tis not well to hustle the Aryan brown, 
For the white man riles and the Aryan smiles, 

And he weareth the Christian down; 
And the end of the strife is a tombstone white, 

With the name of the late deceased; 
And an epitaph clear : "A fool lieth here 

Who tried to hustle the East." 

Along about ten o'clock the automobile with 
the rest of our party, which had left Vigan at 
six in the morning, caught up with us. They 
had crossed the first river on a raft and had 
been pulled through the other two with ropes 
and about twenty men. The water had come so 
high that they had to put their feet on the seat 
to keep them dry. The auto hurried on to Sal- 
mague, and in about an hour returned for us. It 
seemed good to change from the oxcart to a Hup- 
mobile and dart off at twenty miles an hour. As 
80 




Typical Filipino home, Manila. Group of Manila mis- 
sionaries. Commission crossing river on bamboo raft. 



HEADING TOWARD MANILA. 

we sped along between the rice fields, Dr. Lem- 
mon gave expression to a sigh of delight and 
said, "This is in keeping with the American 
spirit." On reaching Salomague, we found that 
the steamer was not due until noon, and we spent 
the intervening hour collecting some pretty coral 
and shells from the shore. 

Finally the little tobacco steamer, the Yisi- 
dora Pons, hove in sight and anchored about a 
mile out in the bay. We were loaded with our 
baggage into one of the odd native boats, made 
of hewn planks fastened together with bamboo 
bark, and rowed in a drenching rain over the 
choppy waves and rolling seas to the ship. We 
had a good deal of difficulty getting aboard, as 
our boat was tossed up and down violently on 
the waves and we had to use much agility to 
swing ourselves onto the inclined ladder hanging 
down the side of the ship. 

Our experience on the Yisidora Pons was no 
more pleasant than on the Mauban ten days ago. 
We spent a most miserable afternoon and night, 
and reached San Fernando at noon to-day. We 
were taken off in small boats in another rain, 
and as the boats could not get to shore, we were 
carried quite a distance on men's backs. Mrs. 
Doan is a very plucky traveler and stands these 
trying journeys quite as well as the rest of us. 

We learned that there had been several deaths 
from cholera in San Fernando, and that there 
might be a serious outbreak of it. The nearest 

« 8i 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

doctor is sixty miles from this place, and he is 
a busy Government physician who looks after 
the soldiers in a large area of country. The 
next nearest help is Dr. Kline, of our mission, 
eighty miles away at Vigan, or the doctors in 
Manila, two hundred miles south. There are 
two United Brethren missionary families in San 
Fernando, and this town needs a medical mis- 
sionary badly. 

We took dinner at the hotel, and Dr. Lemmon 
personally went into the kitchen and supervised 
the cooking, seeing also that all the dishes and 
knives and forks were thoroughly scalded as a 
safeguard against cholera germs. 

After lunch we bought some tin packages of 
crackers, corned beef, deviled ham, and figs from 
America, for our supper on the train, and a 
dozen small bottles of soda pop to drink. We 
then loaded ourselves and our baggage into two 
American autos, each driven by American 
Negroes who had married Filipino wives, and 
were hurried over the fine coral road six miles 
to the large river, this side of which the railway 
to Manila begins. The rain had ceased and we 
noticed a great many people out in the rice field 
with baskets at their sides and little nets in their 
hands, working in the ditches of water between 
the rice paddies. The Negro who drove our auto 
told us they were gathering bugs, snails, grass- 
hoppers, locusts, and worms for food. He said, 
"The Filipino country people eat almost every 
82 



HEADING TOWARD MANILA. 

living thing except snakes." He also said that 
grasshoppers and locusts were a great delicacy 
with them. 

We crossed the river on three sets of rafts, 
each one going to a sand bar, across which we 
would walk to the next one. After getting 
across, we walked about half a mile to the rail- 
road station and took the train to this point. 
We reached this town of Dagupan about eight 
o'clock this evening in a pouring rain, and waded 
two blocks over our shoetops to the hotel. This 
is indeed a pioneer hostel with hard, rattan beds 
and questionable bedding. One of our party who 
retired early has already reported that he has 
felt the bite of the "international bedfellow." 

Manila, September 4th. 

After a long day on the railroad, broken 
by a boat ride through fifteen miles of inundated 
track and five miles on a handcar, we reached 
Manila again. 

The journeying through the northern prov- 
inces in the rainy season has been hard, but it 
has given us a very accurate idea of what the 
missionaries have to face in any travel during 
four or five months of the year. During the dry 
season the roads are good, but the work out from 
the centers cannot be entirely confined to that 
period. 

Three years ago we had no doctor at Vigan, 
and Mrs. McCallum made this long journey to 

83 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

Laoag through the most stormy part of the rainy 
season just before the birth of her child. She 
and Mr. McCallum crossed raging rivers on rafts 
and bancas, or dugout canoes, and forded others 
in ox and pony carts. Two years later their 
baby was desperately ill and they carried him 
over the same journey under the same circum- 
stances, almost despairing of his life. Dr. 
Pickett toiled with him night and day, and it 
seemed that he could not possibly live. Dr. 
Pickett needed counsel and a telegram was sent 
to Dr. Lemmon, at Manila, two hundred and fifty 
miles away, to come. After the telegram was 
sent, they learned that the bridges were all out 
and the roads absolutely impassable, so another 
telegram was sent to Dr. Lemmon not to come. 
He had already started, however, and the last 
message did not reach him. He traveled five 
days and nights through almost constant rain, 
by all sorts of conveyances, and finally with the 
greatest difficulty reached Laoag. The two doc- 
tors pulled the baby through and little John Mc- 
Callum is a hearty, rollicking boy to-day ! 

Manila, September lOth. 

On reaching Manila, we found that the S. S. 
Mongolia would not sail on schedule September 
5th, but, having a very large cargo to handle 
and the weather being very bad, would sail on 
the 7th. The date has been steadily put off until 
now the date set is to-morrow, the nth. This 

84 



HEADING TOWARD MANILA. 

has given us a much needed period in Manila 
to study the work and help plan for the future. 
Had we known of this long delay, the stay at 
Vigan and Laoag would have been made longer. 
We have spent the time to much profit in study- 
ing conditions, looking into the work of other 
missions, holding conferences with workers of 
other Boards, planning with our own mission- 
aries, and also holding a valuable conference with 
our Filipino brethren. 



8s 



X. 
A Day In Teeming Canton. 

Steamer Patshan, Pearl River, China. Wednes- 
day night, September i6th. 
Who could crowd into ten hours a greater 
number of experiences than we have passed 
through to-day? We took passage on this river 
steamer last night from Hongkong, and arrived 
in Canton early this morning. We were fur- 
nished, through the agency selling us the tickets, 
with a good Chinese guide who speaks English 
quite well, and he kept us moving at a rapid 
rate from place to place. We really saw too 
much to assimilate with anything like clearness, 
but still the great city has made a remarkable 
impression upon us. Canton is the largest city 
in China, and one of the largest in the world. 
The population is put at two millions and a half 
by outsiders, the Chinese claiming as high as four 
millions. The Chinese figure is probably an over- 
estimate. If one should judge the size of Canton 
by the swarms of people one sees everywhere as 
he travels for hours through the narrow streets, 
the population would not be below that of Lon- 
don or New York. Besides the teeming multi- 
tudes, that live in the city, it is estimated that 
300,000 dwell in the sampans or houseboats on 
86 



A DAY IN TEEMING CANTON. 

the river. With the exception of the Bund, or 
river front, where jinrikishas are used, the only 
means of conveyance in Canton is the sedan 
chair, and we used these in our sightseeing to- 
day. These light bamboo and rattan chairs, with 
their boxlike bodies and canvas tops, are borne 
on two poles extending in front and behind for 
six or eight feet. Three men carry them, two 
in front and one behind, and the men swing along 
at a good gait, with the poles on their shoulders, 
giving the passenger an odd up-and-down spring- 
ing motion. The men wear short pants, are bare- 
footed, and wear nothing above the waist save 
their broad, umbrella-shaped, rattan hats strapped 
under the chin. 

The first place of interest we visited was the 
Union Christian Hospital, which is the oldest 
institution of the kind in all China. We reached 
this place about eight o'clock, and one of the 
doctors in charge kindly showed us through this 
great institution of healing. Peter Parker, the 
first medical missionary to China, who was con- 
temporaneous with Robert Morrison, began the 
effort which finally resulted in this institution 
through the work of Dr. Kerr. For eighty years 
this great healing plant has shown forth the 
spirit and teaching of Christ in South China. 
No one can measure the power of such a work 
in this great city and in all the region round 
about. It has been often said that Peter Parker 
opened China to the gospel at the point of a 

87 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

lancet, and one needs only to look through an 
institution of this kind to see how this type of 
work not only breaks down prejudice, but gives 
a remarkable exhibition of the real genius of 
Christianity. This institution has a group of 
good buildings, three American doctors and three 
Chinese. The dispensary patients number about 
one hundred and fifty a day, and the ward pa- 
tients nearly two hundred. Yesterday there were 
twenty-nine operations in the hospital. Back of 
the hospital is a self-supporting Chinese Presby- 
terian church of about six hundred members. 
Next to the hospital compound is a large Chi- 
nese Y. M. C. A. 

Just next to the Union Hospital is the True 
Light Girls' Seminary of the Presbyterian Board. 
We spent some time looking through this school, 
directed by two young lady missionaries and 
the Chinese principal, Mrs. Lau. There are 
three hundred and twenty girls and women in 
this fine institution, which has been in operation 
for forty years. Mrs. Lau was one of the first 
girls that entered, and she has been with the 
school all her life. She has a daughter in Mount 
Holyoke College, Massachusetts. We were much 
interested in visiting the classes and seeing them 
studying the Bible as their first lesson of the 
morning. From this institution have gone out 
thousands of Christian workers all over South 
China. Mrs. Lau is so honored by the Chinese 
that she was recently elected from Canton as a 



A DAY IN TEEMING CANTON. 

representative of the National Government, but 
she declined because of her love for the girls 
in the seminary. 

From the girls' school we were taken in our 
chairs and carried into the heart of the city. The 
streets are from six to eight feet wide only, and 
are more like narrow canyons than streets. The 
buildings are two and three stories high, and 
with many rattan awnings and other obstacles 
along the upper stories, the sun is entirely shut 
out of these narrow lanes. In the heart of the 
city the lower street floors are all taken up with 
little shops, small manufacturing places, and mar- 
kets, and the living rooms are above. The streets 
fairly swarm with people, and in many places 
our chair-men only got through with much diffi- 
culty. Their cry of warning, "heouw !" was con- 
stantly sounding in our ears, and when they met 
other chairs it was many times the closest kind 
of a shave to make it at all. In many places 
from ten to twenty people would wait in a little 
recess in the street that we might pass. Our 
first visit was to Jade Stone Street, where most 
of the little shops are given over to the grinding 
and selling of these stones, peculiar to China; 
then we visited the little section given over to 
the carvers of ivory, and saw their wonderful 
work. Then we passed through sections where 
every conceivable hand manufacture seemed to 
be carried on. Blacksmithing, iron working, 
brass working, wood carving, pipe making, bone 

89 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

carving, silk weaving, embroidery work, bead 
making, and numerous other industries. These 
Httle hand factories were all operated in very 
small spaces, sometimes not over six feet across 
and ten feet deep, with the front all open to the 
street. On entering any of these shops or the 
little stores you would find a large group of 
workers in each place. Every little establish- 
ment seemed to have the whole family and sev- 
eral of the relatives helping in some capacity. 

The Chinese put physical comfort above ap- 
pearance. The majority of the men who work 
in the shops and factories and on the street wear 
no shirt, and since Canton is semi-tropical and 
very hot this time of the year, each man carries 
a fan. Instead of fanning their faces, they fan 
their stomachs, their sides, and their backs. 

The narrow streets are paved with stone 
slabs, and are quite clean. Every burden which 
is carried through them is borne on the back of 
some one, usually on a bow across the shoulders. 
If the man has not two separate articles to bal- 
ance on his bow, he often puts a weight opposite 
what he is carrying to properly balance it. 

After seeing some of the shops, we were 
taken to see the famous water clock, eighteen 
hundred years old, which is located in a temple 
on top of the old inner city wall. This clock 
consists of a series of bronze receptacles, one 
above the other. The top jar, which is very 
large, is filled with water each three months, 
90 



A DAY IN TEEMING CANTON. 

and through a small aperture this drops at the 
rate of two drops a second into the second jar, 
and from that to the next, and so on down to 
the bottom. The lower jar fills every twenty- 
four hours, and each hour is indicated by a "brass 
rod fastened to a float in the jar, which rises 
through the top of the jar as the process of fill- 
ing goes on. For centuries this was the time 
standard for Canton. 

After this, we saw the great Flower Pagoda, 
nine stories high, and then had a view from the 
inner city wall at the West Gate of the old city. 
From this point we could see for miles over the 
tops of the tiled houses, so massed together that 
no streets were visible at all. 

Next our guide took us to the Temple of the 
Five Genii, the most historic temple in South 
China. After going through a series of ap- 
proaches, you reach the inner temple, where 
these five images are placed. They are carved in 
wood, overlaid with gold, and are supposed to 
represent the north, south, east, west, and middle 
sections of old China. In front of each is a large 
stone, supposed to have been brought in a miracu- 
lous way by the spirits represented by these 
images from these different parts of the country. 
We found but two or three people worshiping 
in this temple, but the guide informed us that 
most people came on the first or fifteenth of each 
month. 

Next we went to the Temple of Five Hun- 
91 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

dred Genii. This we found to be a well con- 
structed, rather artistic, and well-kept temple. 
Two huge, ugly wooden images guarded the en- 
trance. They are supposed to keep away the 
evil spirits. After passing through many courts 
we came to the temple proper. Five hundred 
different wooden images, all life-size and no two 
alike, are arranged in lanes on wooden shelves. 
These seem to represent great Chinese characters 
with one exception. This image is of Marco 
Polo, the first white man to visit China. In 
front of each image is a jar of ashes in which 
joss or incense sticks are burned by worshipers. 
Each person who visits the temple chooses the 
image he wishes to worship and burns his stick 
of incense before it. There were no worshipers 
in this temple, and our guide informed us that 
people came earlier in the morning for this pur- 
pose. He said there were usually about two 
hundred women and very few men. On being 
asked why so few men attended, he stated that 
they had heard that in Europe and America the 
men did not worship, so they had decided they 
need not do so in China! In the midst of this 
great temple are also three large images of 
Buddha. 

We next went to the Temple of the God of 
Medicine, and found the sick people seeking 
health in a very curious way. They were burn- 
ing incense before the god and then shaking a 
bamboo case, containing a quantity of numbered 
92 



A DAY IN TEEMING CANTON. 

rattan pieces, until one of them fell out. The 
number on this slip was then ascertained and 
a prescription answering to the number secured 
from a temple clerk for a few pennies. After 
this the prescription is taken to a Chinese drug 
store and a concoction secured which is pre- 
pared from it. We were able to buy two 
of the bamboo cases with the prescriptions 
for eleven cents each, and then have the pre- 
scriptions filled at a drug store for five cents 
each. Our medicine consisted of some shavings 
from roots and woods. One Chinese who pur- 
chased at the same time secured a dozen dried 
locusts. Along the wall of the "drug" store we 
noticed a number of jars containing snakes in 
liquor. We were told that after the snakes were 
soaked in liquor for a long time, the liquid was 
poured off and made very powerful and ex- 
pensive medicine. They were anxious to sell us 
a bottle, but we did not buy. They also showed 
us a cage of snakes which they said were used 
in preparing special prescriptions. 

The last point of interest visited before re- 
turning to our steamer was the Kingfisher 
Feather Works. Here we saw the most ex- 
quisite jewelry of gold and silver inlaid with 
tiny, highly colored pieces of kingfisher feathers. 
It is the only place in the world, it is said, where 
this work is done. It is an exceedingly delicate 
kind of work, and only men with the finest eye- 
sight can do it. 

93 



XL 
Entering Central China. 

Shanghai, China, September 21st. 

After a very pleasant sea voyage on the Mon- 
golia from Hongkong by way of Kuling, For- 
mosa, we arrived here at 3 : 30 this afternoon. 
Early this morning we found ourselves in the 
Yellow Sea, so named because of the color given 
to it by the waters of the great Yangtse River. 
Our steamer proceeded up this river about fifty 
miles, and at the mouth of a smaller river, on 
which this city is located, we took a steam launch 
into the city. Shanghai is a well-built city of 
nearly one million inhabitants, and one of the 
most prosperous cities in the Far East. A group 
of our missionaries met us at the steamer, and 
once on shore, we were taken in tow by Mr. 
Barcus and Mr. Shaw, of this station, who 
utilized the remaining two hours of daylight by 
taking us to see one of the great cotton mills 
near our Yangtsepoo church and school. This 
was an especially interesting visit because our 
work in that section of the city is among the 
people who toil in these mills. There are more 
94 



ENTERING CENTRAL CHINA. 

than fifty thousand Chinese working in the cot- 
ton mills in this city. Although the majority of 
these mills are owned by Chinese themselves, 
the one we visited is owned by Englishmen. It 
employs three thousand people, runs twenty-four 
hours each day with two shifts of laborers, has 
seventy-two thousand spindles and five hundred 
looms. Only one fifth of its output of yarn 
is woven in the mill, the rest being sold to other 
factories. There is no organized labor in China, 
and nearly half the employees of this mill are 
boys and girls, many of them only eight, ten, and 
twelve years of age. The children get about ten 
cents a day, the women spinners from twelve 
and a half to fifteen cents a day, and the carders 
fourteen cents. Little girls of six get six cents 
helping their mothers. Coolies who bear bur- 
dens in the mill get from ten to fifteen cents a 
day. The mill owners do not deal with the 
laborers direct, but secure them all by contract- 
ing through a Chinese, who pays them according 
to their labor. One of the most distressing things 
in this great mill was the large number of women 
with bound feet, who work at the looms all day. 
Although these have stools on which to sit part 
of the day, they must stand on their pitiful stubs 
of feet and endure great pain and weariness 
much of the time. The manager who showed us 
through stated that they used mostly Chinese 
cotton, but that they mixed a little American cot- 
ton with it to give it quality. He stated that our 

95 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

cotton was much superior to theirs and was the 
best in the world — also the most expensive. 

This evening we first had a conference with 
Fletcher Brockman, the general Y. M. C, A. 
secretary for China, Japan, and Korea, concern- 
ing mission conditions in Shanghai, and the work 
of our own mission in particular. He is one 
of the great men of China and one of the out- 
standing religious leaders of the world. He 
spoke in the most appreciative way of the work 
and workers of our own mission, and paid a 
most glowing tribute to Dr. Macklin and F. E. 
Meigs, of Nanking. His counsel was most help- 
ful to us. He has lived in Shanghai for fifteen 
years and knows the mission situation thor- 
oughly. 

After our conference with him, we spent a 
couple of hours with the Advisory Committee of 
our own China mission, consisting of Alexander 
Paul, of Wuhu ; D. E. Dannenberg, of Chuchow ; 
Justin Brown, of Luchowfu, and Mary Kelley 
and Guy W. Sarvis, of Nanking. It was hearten- 
ing indeed to confer with these bright, alert 
missionaries and hear of their plans for us while 
we are in China. They will certainly keep us 
busy. Every day is packed full for seven weeks 
with mission visitation, conferences with mis- 
sionaries and Chinese leaders, and visits to the 
missions of other churches. They have arranged 
our itinerate so that no grass will grow under 
our feet while here. 

96 




Aged Chinese woman 
with bound feet, sewing. 
A Western advertise- 
ment can be seen on the 
wall. 



Mrs. Lau, head of 
True Light Girls' Sem- 
inary, Canton, China. 
One of China's greatest 
Christian women. 



ENTERING CENTRAL CHINA. 

Shanghai, September 22d. 

It is now 10 : 30 P. M., and we have been 
very busy since eight this morning. At that hour 
we visited the Boys' Institute on Miller Road, 
which was started fourteen years ago by W. F. 
Bentley, and which is now superintended by 
Herbert Shaw. The work is carried on in an 
old building, inadequate for the work, but the 
Society has recently purchased a fine piece of 
property adjoining for a much needed enlarge- 
ment. We found one hundred and ten bright- 
faced boys gathered for their chapel exercise 
under the direction of the head Chinese teacher, 
who has two assistants. The boys presented a 
pleasing appearance garbed in their long, blue 
shirt-coats or slips, coming nearly to the ground. 
They looked clean and well disciplined, and we 
were impressed by their alertness. Most of them 
are sons of shopkeepers of the smaller class who 
live in the neighborhood. The boys sang in 
their own tongue "How firm a foundation," and 
then the members of the Commission were in- 
troduced and we each gave a brief talk. The 
pupils of this school all gladly pay tuition and 
the expense of the teachers is covered in this 
way. These boys are all under Christian teach- 
ing and influence. Each morning there is a 
chapel and evangelistic service, and each day the 
Sunday-school lesson is studied. Besides this, 
Chinese ethics are taught daily. Practically all 
of these boys attend Sunday school, and their 
97 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

homes are all open to visitation on the part of 
teachers and Chinese pastor, as well as the mis- 
sionary himself. The little schoolrooms are 
packed with students, and the size of the school 
is only limited by the size of the old building, 
which, significant enough, was once an opium 
den. The Chinese are hungry for an education ; 
their own schools are inadequate and expensive, 
and a great door for Christian service is open 
everywhere through this kind of work. 

In the church, which meets in the chapel of 
this building, we have sixty members. Another 
congregation, which is independent and entirely 
supported by the Chinese, has also been estab- 
lished some blocks away. 

Shanghai is one of the most cosmopolitan 
cities in the world. Along the principal streets 
of this great city of a million people can be seen 
the garb of a score of nationalities. The Euro- 
pean section, largely inhabited by French, Eng- 
lish, German, and Americans, and the business 
section, dominated largely by these nationalities, 
are exceedingly well built. They tell us that in 
accord with China's wonderful campaign to de- 
stroy the opium curse, the old Chinese part of 
Shanghai has no opium dens, while in the part 
dominated by foreign influences there are five 
hundred such places. 

On the streets here, as in Hongkong, one is 
impressed with the burden-bearing of the Chi- 
nese coolie. While in Hongkong the burdens are 

98 



ENTERING CENTRAL CHINA. 

usually carried on a bow across the shoulders, 
here they are trundled along on huge wheel- 
barrows or pulled on carts. It is remarkable 
what a Chinaman will push along on one of 
these curious barrows. The wheel is very large 
and the platforms or shelves for the loads on 
either side of it. The man has a strap across 
his back and attached to the handles to help him 
lift and push his burden. It is nothing uncom- 
mon to see a man wheeling six women, three on 
each side of the barrow. One sees huge cart- 
loads being pulled by three or four men, who 
pull and tug as horses do when getting their load 
over a difficult place. 

In the afternoon we visited Mrs. James 
Ware, widow of our pioneer Shanghai mission- 
ary, and her school, and also the church and 
school at Yangtsepoo, where Brother and Sister 
Ware toiled for so many years. When this 
faithful man died, about a year ago, his wife 
chose to go on with the work rather than return 
to America, where her three older children are. 
Few missionaries in China have left more tender 
memories of loving service behind them than has 
James Ware. Mrs. Ware's girls' school is lo- 
cated near her home, and the Chinese teacher is 
Esther Ware, her adopted daughter. This girl, 
who is now about twenty, suffered greatly with 
her bound feet when a little child. She cried 
so much from pain that her parents said she had 
a devil, and when gangrene set in and the feet 
99 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

dropped off, they were anxious to get rid of her. 
Dr. MackHn took her and, by amputating both 
legs at the knees, saved her Hfe. Mr. and Mrs. 
Ware then adopted her. She was sent to Miss 
Lyons's school in Nanking, and graduated with 
honor. She is now a fine Christian teacher and 
gets about with her artificial limbs better than 
do her sisters with their painfully bound feet. 
This school in a small rented room has about 
thirty-five bright girls in it. They sang very 
sweetly for us in Chinese, "There is a gate that 
stands ajar." Mrs. Ware has been in China 
twenty-nine years and has reared six children 
here. She would be very unhappy anywhere 
else. 

Next we took the car to Yangtsepoo. Here 
Mr. Barcus directs the evangelistic work and the 
boys' school, and Miss Tonkin, who is supported 
by our Australian brethren, carries on a girls' 
school and a good work among women. This 
is in the great cotton-mill district of Shanghai, 
where about fifty thousand people are engaged in 
this industry. The opportunity is boundless here. 
The chapel is used for school and church com- 
bined and is never closed from nine in the morn- 
ing until nine at night. There is school every 
day and evangelistic services every night of the 
year. The chapel is always filled, and often 
people are turned away. 

The boys and girls of the two schools joined 
in the chapel and gave an exhibition of Christian 

100 



ENTERING CENTRAL CHINA. 

singing, under Miss Tonkin's direction, that 
would have limbered up some of our listless, 
non-singing congregations at home. The little 
folks then went through some very interesting 
religious songs and kindergarten drills which 
would have done credit to any school platform 
in America. 

We then had a good conference with these 
people about their needs. Their work would 
be made doubly efficient if they had a proper 
school building in which to carry on their edu- 
cational work. It has been at this place that 
Mr. and Mrs. Ware and Miss Tonkin have car- 
ried on their good work for so many years. 

It seems that these Chinese people, who are 
very superstitious and idolatrous, have many 
cases of what they term possession of the devil. 
It is not to be wondered at, for their principal 
worship is that of the devils. At these times 
they seem to be entirely given over to every- 
thing that is vile and filthy, and are practically 
insane. Miss Tonkin says that when she finds 
such she urges them to come into the chapel 
where the songs are being sung and prayer being 
made, telling them that the devil will, leave them 
if they will come in. She says she has never 
known it to fail. The services always quiet these 
unfortunates, and they will say in wonder, "My 
heart is all right when I am in here." Then she 
says to them, "The devil can't come in here; 
there are too many people praying." 

lOI 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

While again going through the city to at- 
tend services in the institute chapel to-night, we 
saw many strange signs over the stores and 
shops. Over one store we saw the name in great 
letters, "Jdlj Belly," and were told that this fat 
Chinaman was given the name by the sailors 
and was very fond of it. The missionaries told 
of a Chinese baker who wished to advertise the 
size of loaves and at the same time appeal to 
the foreigner in his own tongue, and had a sign 
painted, "Biggest Loafer." Another had up the 
interesting sign, "Fresh Milk and Washings." 
High above one of the streets we saw a huge 
electric cigarette sign with the display repre- 
senting a Chinese smoking. The American and 
British cigarette companies are spending tens of 
thousands in free cigarettes to teach the people 
to smoke, and they are succeeding. Their slogan 
is, "Every Chinese a smoker of cigarettes!" 

A few nights ago there was an eclipse of the 
moon, and thousands of Chinese were out with 
drums and all sorts of noisy instruments trying 
to frighten the "black moon" so that it would 
not swallow the "white moon." 

To-night we attended a meeting of welcome 
made up of all three congregations. There were 
about three hundred people who packed the in- 
stitute chapel to overflowing, and a crowd stood 
in the street anxious to get in. It was a fine- 
looking Chinese congregation. A Y. M. C. A. 
physical director, who was educated in our Nan- 

I02 



ENTERING CENTRAL CHINA. 

king school and afterwards took a course in the 
Chinese Y. M. C. A. training school, gave the 
address of welcome in English, and then inter- 
preted for each of us as we spoke to the eager, 
attentive people. The crowd and the deep in- 
terest, combined with the emotion which comes 
when a person faces a congregation of Christians 
in a strange land, made one want to throw the 
halting speech through an interpreter to the winds 
and preach right on. A speaker under such con- 
ditions is like a helpless babe just learning to 
walk. The people sang the good old hymns from 
charts on the wall, and the service was one not 
to be forgotten. The Chinese do not shake hands 
with you, but with themselves, so we stood at the 
door when they went out and bowed and shook 
our own clasped hands up and down in front of 
us while they did the same. We met many in- 
teresting characters, among them Mrs. Li and 
four of her granddaughters, all earnest Chris- 
tians. She has also a great-granddaughter, and 
this family represents four generations of Chris- 
tian people. This dear old Chinese woman, who 
is eighty years of age, never misses a service. 
She has won scores of women to Christ. The 
old lady has very small bound feet, according to 
the old custom, and has to be brought to church 
in a wheelbarrow, a jinrikisha, or on an obliging 
man's back! 



103 



XII. 
Among China's Rural Multitudes. 

Shanghai, China, Thursday night, September 
24th. 

We are now on the boat which in a few min- 
utes will start up the Yangtse River for Nan- 
tungchow, the next station which we will visit. 
It is nearly midnight and yet the river is filled 
with clamor from the Chinese boatmen who push 
their sampans and junks hither and thither. 
Somewhere across the river a crowd of coolies 
are merrily singing their musical yodle to keep 
time while they work at some burden. On the 
deck below us Chinese are sprawled everywhere 
sleeping. This is an excellent boat and the upper 
deck very comfortable and inviting. 

All day yesterday we spent with our China 
Mission Advisory Committee, discussing prob- 
lems and planning for our journey to the sta- 
tions. They talked with the utmost frankness to 
us of hopes, plans, mistakes, heartaches, and vic- 
tories. The glamour of mission work soon de- 
parts when one gets into the depths of it. It is 
the greatest work in the world, but it has no 
royal road to success and it is hard reality in- 
104 



AMONG CHINA'S RURAL MULTITUDES. 

stead of romance. These noble workers have 
their heartaches, and their burdens are too great 
for human endurance. One who has not the gift 
of dependence upon the strength of the Unseen 
One has no business out here. Take the diffi- 
culties of religious work in the homeland and 
multiply them by about four and you have con- 
ditions here. And yet no one is discouraged 
and you could not get these men and women 
of God to engage in any other work with all 
the inducements you might offer. The gospel 
is winning in China, and the workers' hearts are 
made happy with many evidences of it. Let 
us not be impatient with our missionaries in 
China if they do not report great numbers of 
converts. They could have them if they would 
make it easy for them to enter the church, but 
they are trying to build up a church in an idol- 
atrous, superstitious land that will honor Christ 
and command the respect of the people, and this 
requires slow, patient teaching. They have not 
had generations of Christian children growing 
up into the Kingdom as we have had in America, 
and they have discovered no way whereby num- 
bers of people jump at one leap from heathen 
to Christian ideals. What our workers need is 
reinforcement and prayer. We have lowered 
evangelism in America by the passion for count- 
ing many noses; let us not discourage and 
weaken our missionaries by the same demands 
upon them. Let us give them a little time to 

105 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

train strong native leaders and to shepherd and 
strengthen the work already established. 

Our hearts have burned within us as we have 
listened to the self-forgetful plans and appeals 
of our leaders in China. 

To-day we have been very busy seeing the 
work of other religious bodies besides our own. 
We went first to St. John's University, one of 
the great educational centers of the East. It is 
an Episcopal school with 550 students, besides 
200 in the adjoining girls' seminary; 160 of 
these students are in the regular college courses. 
Tuition and board is $220 a year, and hundreds 
of students are turned away. This institution 
with its beautiful modern building and high- 
grade work is a fine ideal for this section of 
China, and has made a great impression on the 
Chinese. 

We next went to the large Catholic insti- 
tution at Siccawei. This is an orphans' indus- 
trial school and colony. Whatever one's feel- 
ings may be concerning the teaching of the Cath- 
olic Church, it is impossible not to admire the 
great work being done here for the Chinese. 
During the day there are 1,700 people in this 
institution, 900 of whom are housed perma- 
nently in the buildings. They have lace making 
and embroidery departments, where the most 
exquisite work is done by Chinese girls, which 
is sold largely in New York and Paris. There 
is a large wood-working department for the boys, 
106 



AMONG CHINA'S RURAL. MULTITUDES. 

where carving is done. Just now this depart- 
ment is working on an exhibit for the San Fran- 
cisco Exposition. Models of eighty of the chief 
pagodas of China are being made in the shop 
for this purpose. These are French CathoHcs, 
and a kind- faced old sister took us through the 
institution. One of the most impressive depart- 
ments was the ward where the poor little aban- 
doned Chinese babies are kept. There were 
about thirty of these tiny little ones, all of which 
were from a few hours to a few days old. Prac- 
tically all of them were in a dying condition, 
but the devoted nurses were ministering to them 
in the tenderest way. The elderly sister who 
was with us could not hold back the tears as 
she told us of these little ones and that nearly 
all of them died in spite of all they could do. 
She said they were all little girls and that they 
were either thrown out by their parents to die 
or were brought to them in a dying condition and 
left. When asked why these little ones were 
abandoned by their parents, she replied that their 
parents felt there were too many children in the 
family and they were not wanted. Their pitiable 
condition on being received was due to neglect, 
exposure, ignorance, and lack of nourishment. 
We were told that a baby was never turned away 
from this orphanage. Certainly this tender min- 
istry is as sweet and Christlike a one as could be 
imagined. 

We next visited the Baptist College and Sem- 
107 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

inary, the president of which, Dr. Frank White, 
was my classmate in the theological seminary. 
This is an excellent institution of high grade, 
with one hundred and fifty college students in 
attendance. The property and buildings cost 
$100,000 in China, but they could not be dupli- 
cated in America for less than $300,000. 

At the noon hour we were given a luncheon 
at the Chinese Young Men's Christian Associ- 
ation with some of the leading Christian Chinese 
of Shanghai. 

This work is certainly an inspiration in this 
oriental city. Mr. Lockwood, the secretary in 
charge, is a leader of rare ability, an Indiana 
man. There are fifteen hundred members, and 
eleven hundred enrolled in its school depart- 
ments. In America it is the gymnasium that 
attracts and the Y. M. C. A. class work has to 
be pushed hard to make a success of it. In China 
the school work is the great attraction, and it is 
with difficulty that you can arouse interest in 
physical exercise. The Y. M. C. A. property 
here cost $160,000, of which $50,000 was given 
by the Chinese themselves. This association 
work is entirely self-supporting, save for the 
salary of the general secretary. 

The luncheon was a most interesting affair, 
and we were much helped by being able to get 
the viewpoint of these Chinese men concerning 
mission work in China. 

One of these men was Dr. Fong, a Ph.D. 
108 



AMONG CHINA'S RURAL MULTITUDES. 

from Columbia University, and now one of the 
head men of the great Shanghai Commercial 
Press. He has spent many years in America, 
is an ardent Christian man, and one of China's 
leaders. He became a Christian in Sacramento, 
California, through the Sunday-school work of 
the Congregational Church. He spoke most ap- 
preciatingly of the interest American Christians 
had taken in China, and paid a glowing tribute 
to the strong missionary life that had been so 
freely given for his country. He said he felt 
the greatest need of the church in China was for 
a better trained native ministry. 

Another interesting man present was Mr. 
Liu, a wealthy Chinese from Wuweichow, a city 
where we have recently established a work. This 
man is worth millions, and Alexander Paul, our 
missionary who knows him best, says that his 
rice, raised in his own fields, this year will bring 
him more than $500,000. He is not yet a Chris- 
tian, but has become deeply interested through 
Mr. Paul and has turned his unoccupied residence, 
worth $25,000, over to our mission, in which to 
carry on our work. He was a very high official 
formerly, and during the revolution came to 
Shanghai for protection. He has been offered 
the position of Commissioner of Education for 
his province by the Government, but said he 
would only accept on the condition that wherever 
possible the schools should all be under the su- 
perintendency of the missionaries. The higher 
109 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

official did not agree with him, so he would not 
accept the place. 

Two other leading Christian men at the 
luncheon were the Commissioner of Customs and 
the head of the Chinese Express Company. 
These men, with others who were present, are 
all leaders in and strong supporters of Christian 
work in Shanghai. 

On houseboat going north from Nantungchow. 
September 26th. 
Early yesterday morning our steamer came 
near the landing for Nantungchow and a barge 
was poled alongside and fastened to our steamer. 
We were then transferred to this barge, with 
our baggage, and taken ashore. Here we found 
Mr. Johnson and Mr. Plopper, missionaries at 
Nantungchow, with sedan chairs and wheelbar- 
rows to transport us and our baggage to the city, 
four miles away. A group of Chinese Chris- 
tians were also at the landing to bid us welcome, 
and did so by shooting off about ten feet of 
bunches of firecrackers. These were hung to 
a long bamboo pole, and their popping was in- 
terspersed by the boom of large cannon crackers. 
We found a number of soldiers here, who in- 
sisted on opening our baggage. In explanation 
of this our missionary friends informed us that 
recently a band of revolutionists, bent on rob- 
bery, landed here and caused much trouble, and 
that since then there had been orders to search 
no 



AMONG CHINA'S RURAL MULTITUDES. 

all baggage. It seems that this band of sixty 
brigands shot down two of the four soldiers on 
guard, the others escaping by fleeing. The revo- 
lutionists then started for the city of Nantung- 
chow, apparently expecting that sympathizers 
within the city would aid them to take and loot 
the place. One of the escaping soldiers, how- 
ever, reached a telephone about a mile away 
and telephoned to the provincial superintend- 
ent of police within the city. He immediately 
ordered the city gate to be closed, and sta- 
tioned a company of soldiers on the city wall 
to protect the place from the attacking party. 
These men soon arrived at the south gate of 
the city, but found it closed, and were immedi- 
ately attacked by the guard on the wall. They 
were not only driven back, but pursued and 
twenty-two of them captured. Eighteen of these 
were shot and four beheaded just outside the 
city wall, less than a quarter of a mile from our 
mission. This experience has disturbed the Chi- 
nese very much, and the Government has now 
stationed two thousand soldiers in this district. 
After the examination of our baggage, we 
climbed into our sedan chairs and started on our 
way to the city. We were followed by the two 
wheelbarrows bearing our luggage. The path 
on top of the dyke, over which we were carried, 
was lined with these huge barrows loaded with 
heavy burdens of various kinds. The wheel is 
very large, coming up through the center, and 
III 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

the load is balanced on either side. Each of 
these wheelbarrows has a squeak proportionate 
to its size, . and the noise made by a company 
of them has a tendency to get on an American's 
nerves. The Chinese, however, do not mind it; 
in fact, they like it, and a man who has a wheel- 
barrow that does not squeak seems to feel that 
there is something the matter with it. No argu- 
ment can convince them that oil would make the 
running easier. After we had traversed the dyke 
for about a mile we were carried onto a very 
narrow path built up between the fields. These 
paths are barely wide enough for two chairs 
or wheelbarrows to pass, and are anything but 
smooth. This part of China is very densely 
populated, the estimate being one thousand peo- 
ple to the square mile for the whole district. 
There are houses everywhere, giving the appear- 
ance of one continuous village. The land seems 
very fertile, and is divided up into little farms, 
many of them less than half an acre in extent. 
One is struck by the number of graves every- 
where, there apparently having been no particu- 
lar system in locating them. We are told that 
each place for a grave is selected by a necro- 
mancer. In many places these graves, usually 
overgrown with high reeds, occupy from one 
third to one half the land. At intervals we saw 
little shrines where the people make offerings 
to the god of the land that they may have lucky 
crops. On the way our coolies stopped to rest 

112 




House boat used on journey to Ru Gao, China. 




On the way to Ru Gao, China. Missionary preaching 
to street crowd. 



AMONG CHINA'S RURAL MULTITUDES. 

in front of a country Chinese inn, and we all 
went inside the wide street opening to see what 
it was like. The floor was of dirt, the walls of 
woven reeds, and the roof of grass thatch. There 
was a large brick stove inside, on which a huge 
pot of rice was boiling, the smoke from the fire 
filling the room, finding its way out as best it 
could through the various openings and cracks. 
Two or three tea tables were standing about cov- 
ered with teacups. The place was occupied by 
a large family, almost every member of which 
had sore eyes. Besides the ordinary Chinese 
house utensils, the room contained a loom, on 
which the cotton cloth for the family's use is 
woven. We were urged to have tea, but man- 
aged under the circumstances to resist the temp- 
tation. As we passed on we saw people sitting 
in front of the houses making curious little ar- 
ticles of brown paper and others cutting out 
little discs from the same material. On inquiry, 
we discovered that the former were paper shoes 
to be burned at the graves, for ancestors who 
had gone on before, that their spirits might use 
them in the spirit world, and that the discs were 
paper money to be used in the same way for the 
convenience of the same spirits. In one place a 
country school of small children, led by the 
teacher, lined up by the side of the path and 
gravely saluted us. We experienced almost a 
continuous line of people along the path, frankly 
curious, but good-natured and kindly. 
113 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

The missionaries had planned a forty-mile 
canal trip to the city of Ru Gao, to look over a 
great, new field, and immediately after luncheon 
we started in a little, twelve-foot boat, driven 
by an American Evinrude canoe motor. Mr. 
Yang, head police commissioner of this district, 
who provided the boat, also accompanied us at 
the beginning of our journey. During the pres- 
ent unrest over the war in Europe and the attack 
of the Japanese on the German colony at Tsing 
Tao, the officials are extremely solicitous that all 
-foreigners have careful protection. The feeling 
seems to be that bands of revolutionists might 
possibly take advantage of the unrest to attack 
foreigners and thus embarrass China with for- 
eign nations. This solicitude, together with the 
uneasiness over the recent attempted attack on 
Nantungchow, led the police commissioner to 
accompany us. We embarked on the narrow 
canal in front of our hospital building, and a 
large company of curious people lined the bank 
to see us off. A silk Chinese Republic flag floated 
from the stern of the little craft, and we must 
have made quite an imposing spectacle to the on- 
looking crowd as eight of us packed into the 
boat and we got under way. Our satisfaction 
was soon changed into chagrin, however, as we 
began to realize that a gasoline engine is fully 
as apt to balk in China as in America. We had 
only proceeded a little way when the engine 
stopped, and we were kept busy dodging house- 
114 



AMONG CHINA'S RURAL MULTITUDES. 

boats and keeping the little, overburdened boat 
from tipping over. Our coolie succeeded in 
starting the motor again, but there were too 
many of us for the power of the engine, and 
after an hour's very slow progress, we were 
obliged to pull our boat to the shore, get out 
and walk to the next town, the commissioner 
having sent a policeman on ahead to secure us 
a houseboat and coolies to pull it. We walked 
along the busy canal path, lined with squeaking 
wheelbarrows, jinrikishas, and men on foot with 
heavy burdens slung on their backs. Professor 
Bower and I ventured part of the distance on 
a wheelbarrow, the squeak of which was raised to 
a loud wail as we balanced our weight on either 
side and were pushed along the path. A Chinese 
barrow has no spring, and with not even a sheet 
of paper for a cushion, we soon got enough of it 
and decided to walk to the next town. 

We found a very good boat awaiting us, with 
two small rooms for passengers and extra little 
quarters on the stern for the family of the boat- 
man. Word came to us from our official that 
he had received a telegram that called him back 
to the city and that his policeman would go with 
us bearing his credentials, so that we would have 
no trouble with Chinese officials. 

The houseboats are pulled by Chinese, who 

walk along the tow-path and pull at the end of 

a long rope. We discovered that only three men 

to pull could be found for the trip and that we 

115 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

would secure three others at a town ten miles 
ahead. After we had paid a dollar down to seal 
the bargain with the men, they poled the boat 
around, pushed it out of the mass of other sim- 
ilar craft, the coolies climbed up to the path on 
the bank, put their shoulders into the peculiar 
little harness they use, and we were off at the 
rate of three and a half miles an hour. It was 
soon dark, and our men plodded on through the 
darkness, calling to each other with their peculiar 
yodle to keep up their spirits. Mr. Johnson and 
Mr. Plopper started up their little alcohol stove, 
fried eggs and warmed up some potatoes, our 
Chinese boatman made us a large pot of tea, 
and we ate heartily. About nine o'clock we 
pulled into the town, where we secured the three 
extra men, and after a certain amount of bar- 
gaining and delay, we started on the long night's 
run. Although the banks of the canal are lined 
with villages and even cities, we could see noth- 
ing in the darkness, and soon retired. The 
boards which formed the floor of the boat were 
taken up, shelves made with them along the 
sides of the two little rooms. After unrolling 
our bedding, which we had brought with us, and 
arranging it on the shelves, the seven of us, in- 
cluding our Chinese policeman, stretched our- 
selves out for sleep. The boards were hard, but 
we were tired and by turning occasionally and 
affording a new spot for the hard contact with 
our bed, we got a very good night's rest. 
ii6 



AMONG CHINA'S RURAL MULTITUDES. 

On board houseboat returning from Ru Gao. 
September 26th, night. 
We feel that we have seen something of real 
China now. Just as truly as New York and 
Chicago would give one but a meager idea of 
real American life, so one does not see typical 
China in Hongkong or Shanghai. We have been 
forty-five miles into the interior from the Yang- 
tse River, and have had a continuous panorama 
of busy China. Our houseboat reached Ru Gao 
about eleven o'clock yesterday, but we were up 
and walking on shore very early in the morning 
to see the interesting things which were con- 
stantly appearing. This is a very fertile plain 
formed by an old delta of the Yangtse, and the 
population everywhere is teeming. The saying 
that one cannot get out of sight of a Chinese 
either living or dead in China is certainly true 
in this region. The canal has on it a constant 
procession of houseboats, sampans, and barges, 
all pulled by coolies, and the country is covered 
with men, women, and children working in the 
little fields. One is strongly impressed with the 
care which the farmers take of their land. Every 
available thing is used for fertilizer. The canal 
bears barges loaded with huge stacks of straw 
and weeds which, after sufficient rotting, is used 
for this purpose. Leaves, weeds, cotton stalks, 
human refuse, and much other waste is carefully 
stacked or buried until sufficiently decayed to en- 
rich the ground. We even saw people with their 
117 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

boats on the canal, pulling the weeds from the 
bottom with long rakes, that they might be used 
for fertilization. The country produces a great 
variety of crops. This is not a rice region, but 
we saw wheat, corn, peanuts, beans, peas, buck- 
wheat, and vegetables of many sorts. The peo- 
ple irrigate from the canal a great deal here, but 
since it is on a low level the water must be car- 
ried to the top of the bank. The Cliinese method 
is to raise it in a sort of elevator which revolves 
with a belt on a drum, after the manner of a 
grain elevator. The power used for this is usu- 
ally derived from coolies, who work a sort of 
treadmill. One of the interesting things along 
the canal bank is the number of pai-fans, or 
monuments, erected to the memory of noted 
men and women. A number of these have also 
been built in memory of pious widows who have 
lived to a great age. 

Early this morning we visited a little temple 
on the bank of the canal. Two women and an 
aged man were acting as keepers. The temple 
with its different parts was arranged around an 
open court with a great tree in the center. In 
the entrance room and in many other parts of 
the temple we found heavy coffins piled up. We 
discovered on inquiry that most of them were 
being stored for people who had purchased them 
but as yet had not needed them. A few of them 
were sealed and contained bodies of temple 
priests. In the interior was a large, gilded 
ii8 



AMONG CHINA'S RURAL MULTITUDES. 

image of Buddha, before which incense was 
burning, and surrounding this a great number 
of smaller images. The temple was equipped 
with large drums, gongs, and bells, used to 
awaken the idols during worship. Along the 
sides of the inner courts we found recesses in 
which there were rows of images made to rep- 
resent the tortures of purgatory. These images 
were fantastic and highly colored, and the types 
of torture presented were strikingly similar to 
those set forth in Dante's Divine Comedy. On 
leaving the temple we left a few coins with the 
aged keepers. They bowed profoundly and 
shook hands with themselves, as is their custom. 

On reaching Ru Gao and having passed 
through the three outer gates, we came to the 
inner gate of the walled city. Here we were 
stopped by an official with soldiers, and the 
officer who was with us had to do much ex- 
plaining concerning our mission before we were 
allowed to pass within. When he had shown 
the official the card of his superior official and 
assured him that we were missionaries, we were 
graciously allowed to pass. In China's state of 
unrest just now the officials in the interior are 
very timid. On our return to the canal we found 
that our houseboat had been searched by the 
officials in our absence. 

Ru Gao is a strongly walled city of about 
45,000 people. One of the best built and clean- 
est cities we have seen in China. It seems to 
119 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

be a prosperous place with rather good schools 
and enterprising officials. It is typical of a large 
number of cities in this thickly populated dis- 
trict, so open to the gospel. With the exception 
of a few visits from the missionaries and evan- 
gelists, this city has never been touched. From 
its high walls the country appears studded with 
towns and villages and swarming with popula- 
tion in every direction. We found the narrow 
streets filled with busy little shops and crowded 
with people. Almost every shop had in it a 
loudly chirping cricket or two, and before we 
had gone far we met a man with a huge rack 
swinging from his shoulders, loaded with tiny 
wooden cages in which these singing crickets 
were confined. Oddly enough, his pets were all 
chirping in unison. We found that he was sell- 
ing them at two cents each, including the cage, 
and that the people used them as we do canaries 
at home. We learned that many of these crickets 
are trained to fight and that cricket contests are 
about as popular as cock-fighting in the Philip- 
pines. 

Nantungchow, Sunday, September 2/th. 

After a very interesting day at Ru Gao, we 
rode all night on the houseboat with nothing 
of importance happening, except that officials 
stopped us in each large town and our Chinese 
policeman made the necessary explanations for 
us. This morning, about seven, we reached the 

120 



AMONG CHINA'S RURAL MULTITUDES. 

break in the canal and took jinrikishas from 
there into the city. 

Our mission here has three rented chapels 
in this city, the larger one being right in the 
center, just off from the busiest street. We 
attended very interesting services there this 
morning, Sunday-school coming at ten and 
church at eleven. The chapel was packed at 
both services, a number of people coming in 
from the street and standing in the entrance. 
The church here has about eighty members. 
Two Chinese evangelists preach in the city 
chapels and surrounding places. Services are 
held every night. We have a good piece of 
land, much larger than the chapel, where an 
efficient building can be built as soon as we can 
get the money. Next to the chapel is a small 
reading room, where newspapers and Christian 
literature are kept for public reading. Here also 
Bibles and Christian books are offered for sale. 
The reading room is well filled through the week 
and is much help to the work. Mr. and Mrs. 
Johnson opened this work nine years ago, and 
have won a warm place in the hearts of these 
people. Their greatest difficulty has been in the 
fact that for most of the time they have been 
alone. Mr. Plopper has been with them but a 
short time. This center should have no less than 
four families for this one city and immediate 
district. 

This afternoon we all went out to visit Lang 

121 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

Shang sacred mountain and pagoda, five miles 
away, to see the famous pagoda and temples 
and get a glimpse of the country from the sum- 
mit. We traveled in jinrikishas, our men pull- 
ing us the ten miles for forty cents each. Lang 
Shang is one of the five most famous pagodas 
in all China. The series of temples up the moun- 
tain side are filled with hundreds of images, the 
main ones being statues of Buddha. Connected 
with these temples are also alcoves containing 
many idols of a different nature, all more or less 
worshiped. Before each image of importance in- 
cense and candles were burning. Each temple is 
equipped with bells, gongs, and drums used to 
awaken the gods before they are worshiped. At 
the top of the mountain, in the base of the great 
pagoda, is a large temple with a huge Buddha. 
Before this a group of devotees were exploding 
giant firecrackers to arouse the deity before pray- 
ing to it. 

We climbed to the top of the pagoda and the 
scene was most wonderful. To the south of us, 
four miles away, flowed the great Yangtse, 
twenty miles broad at this point. In every other 
direction, as far as the eye could reach, stretched 
the thickly populated, level plain. The neat little 
farms, close-set villages, and winding canals, 
formed a most beautiful picture. It seemed that 
many of the villages were no more than from 
an eighth to a quarter of a mile apart. The first 
sensation was of delight, but as we stood with 

122 



AMONG CHINA'S RURAL MULTITUDES. 

the three lone missionaries, gazing out over this 
great plain with its teeming population, and 
realized that they were the only representatives 
of Christ among five million people, our hearts 
grew very heavy. Never before have I so appre- 
ciated the burden which must have been on the 
heart of Christ as he stood with his disciples 
before his ascension and told them to go out 
into all the world — the world dying in sin. O, 
if our people at home could only see these things 
and be stirred by them as we have been, how 
cheap some of their wealth and selfish expendi- 
ture would seem! One of our rich men could 
take this district and evangelize it, and in twenty 
years, I verily believe, have 100,000 converts to 
Christ. Never have I had a similar feeling of 
depression and helplessness come sweeping over 
me as when we found our way down the moun- 
tain side through the maze of temples. Night 
was coming on, the temple bells were ringing, 
the cry of the beggars fell on our ears, and a 
few late worshipers were wearily finding their 
way down the mountain side to the valley below. 
Here is the religion of China at its best. Four 
hundred millions have nothing better, except 
where Christianity has gone. How long, O, 
how long will an open door like this remain un- 
entered by the church of the living God? 



123 



XIII. 
On To Nanking. 

Steamer, enroute to Nanking, September ^oth. 

Early this morning we left the mission in 
Sedan chairs for the Yangtse steamer to Nan- 
king. The missionaries accompanied us for the 
four miles and saw us off on the steamer. 

Day before yesterday we took a day's house- 
boat journey on a canal, accompanied by Mr. 
Yang, the police superintendent for the district. 
He was very kind to us and is very much inter- 
ested in our work. He is a Christian man and 
a loyal friend of the work, and at the same time 
the chief official of the whole district. His 
friendship is invaluable. One of the interesting 
things on this trip was a visit to a large country 
Buddhist temple which has been converted into 
a modern school. The idols have been moved 
from the main part of the temple and huddled 
together in an alcove to the side, while the space 
they formerly occupied has been converted into 
a modern school for thirty boys. This is the 
work of Mr. Chang Chien, Minister of Com- 
merce and Agriculture for all China. He has 
done the same thing in the towns and in the 
124 



ON TO NANKING. 

country all over this region. One can hardly 
measure the significance of such a change. What 
are we going to do to shape the religion of these 
young lives, trained in modern learning, which 
is the outgrowth of Christianity, and having 
practically abandoned their own religion? Are 
we going to give them Western education with- 
out God ? Are they to have learning without the 
Spirit which will guide that new and dangerous 
power ? 

Yesterday the day was largely spent in con- 
ference on the work and plans for the future. 
Prayer and discussion continued far into the 
night. What beautiful visions and hopes these 
workers had for the extension of the work, the 
establishment of new stations, and the coming of 
new workers to the field, and how cruel it was 
to chill their ardor with the report that the re- 
ceipts of the Society could not make it possible ! 
The missionaries face a big job out here in China, 
but the biggest job is in arousing the church at 
home to do what God has called it to do for the 
whole world. More difficult than the task of 
reaching China's idolatrous millions is the task 
of interesting the prosperous, highly favored 
Christians of the homeland. 

Nanking, China, October ist. 

Our steamer landed at the port of Nanking 
sometime very early this morning, and before we 
were awake F. E. Meigs was pounding at our 
125 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

cabin doors to arouse us. It was characteristic 
of this tireless pioneer. He has been ceaselessly 
knocking at China's doors for over twenty-seven 
years now, and although his hair has whitened 
and his once strong frame has grown enfeebled, 
his zeal is undiminished and the same fires burn 
in his soul. Nanking has a population of 300,000, 
but its great wall might enclose five million. 
There are indications that in olden days the city 
was much larger than at present. A great deal 
of the space inside the wall is open country, and 
in the swamps and uncultivated stretches are 
found pheasant, wild duck, and even deer. 

Nothing impresses one with the great changes 
that have come to China more than the old, 
abandoned Government examination halls, to 
which Mr. Meigs took us on our way into the 
city this morning. Here, in a great walled en- 
closure, are the fast crumbling booths where vast 
hordes of China's students under the old regime 
took their examination. Now the place is over- 
grown with weeds and is the picture of desola- 
tion. Formerly often as many as thirty thousand 
students suffered their tests in this great series 
of stalls or rooms. I say suffered, for the ex- 
aminations lasted three days, of twenty-four 
hours each, and many of these students died 
while confined in their little individual examina- 
tion rooms. The old system of education had only 
to do with the memorizing and reproducing of 
the ancient Chinese classics. Those who passed 
126 



ON TO NANKING. 

a satisfactory examination received a stipend 
and were eligible to public office. As the offices 
were limited, only one out of one hundred could 
pass, and the strain on these young students 
was indescribable. Ten years ago this whole 
system was done away and China, theoretically 
at least, adopted the Western system of educa- 
tion. We climbed to the top of the watch tower 
in the center of this great area of booths and 
surveyed the desolate scene. In this tower for- 
merly sat the guardians and directors of the ex- 
aminations, watching to see that each student 
kept faithfully at his arduous task. Now the 
tower is falling into ruins and the view from 
its top is anything but cheering. The tiles are 
falling from the long rows of booths, and thistles 
and , rank growths of weeds choke the many 
passage ways. It is good to see China turning 
from the old to the new, but one wishes that in 
the transition reverence and care might be shown 
for the forms which held the old. One in- 
stinctively feels that a gradual climbing from 
the old to the new things of progress would 
have been better and safer than the flying leap 
China has endeavored to make. One admires 
the leap, but shudders at the institutions kicked 
into wreckage in the process. 

Nanking has suffered terribly both in the 
revolution and rebellion that followed. The lat- 
ter almost left the city a wreck. The soldiers 
looted the city for three days, and had it ' not 
127 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

been for Dr. Macklin's efforts, would probably 
have burned it. The city is just getting back 
on its feet after this last terrible experience, and 
most of the wealthy citizens are still in Shanghai 
or other places where they are accorded pro- 
tection. 

After driving through the city we approached 
the famous South Gate, near which our leading 
evangelistic and day school work is located. 
Miss Mary Kelly and Miss Snyder are here in 
the center of one of the busiest mission points in 
China. Miss Kelly has been a number of years 
in China, and Miss Snyder is just beginning her 
first term. Mr. Gish, who has just reached 
China, will probably be located here. At the 
present time Mr. G. W. Sarvis is helping to di- 
rect this evangelistic work in connection with his 
teaching at the University of Nanking. 

This mission center is on the main street lead- 
ing from the South Gate through the great city 
wall, and is one of the busiest thoroughfares we 
have seen in the East. Each side of the narrow 
street is lined with busy Chinese shops of all 
kinds, and the stream of people in each direction 
is constant. Here, in a little rented room. Dr. 
Macklin began his South Gate dispensary 
twenty-seven years ago. There was much oppo- 
sition to Christianity in those days, but his med- 
ical skill opened the way. In this little room he 
and his Chinese helper served the thousands who 
128 




Raw material in China. Young men of the Middle School, 
Nankin University. Abandoned Government examination 
halls, Nankin, China. 



ON TO NANKING. 

came for physical healing, and at the same time 
Dr. Macklin worked on his many translations 
into the Chinese tongue. 

The chapel room next to the dispensary has 
been rented for twenty-seven years, and only 
recently has it been possible to buy property 
here. Now it is proposed to put $4,000 into a 
chapel and institutional plant nearby, and it 
would be hard to imagine a place more fitted 
for this type of work. This church has one 
hundred and ten members, and is presided over 
by Mr. Shaw, a devoted Chinese pastor, for- 
merly the printer for Mr. Meigs at the boys' 
school. The crowds come to the meetings in 
this little hall, and the proposed new building 
with a good seating capacity will be a great boon 
to the work. Dr. Macklin is now in Australia 
recovering from a partial breakdown and visit- 
ing the churches, and his old pupil and assistant. 
Dr. Li, is in charge of the dispensary — a deeply 
devoted man. In this whole section "Malin 
sen sen," the Chinese name for Macklin, is 
magic among the people. From forty to fifty 
people visit the dispensary each morning, and 
services are also held each morning in the chapel. 
There are also services morning and night on 
Sunday. In the rented rooms back and up-stairs, 
a night school, two boys' day schools, two girls' 
schools and one Bible training school for women 
are held. This poor, adapted building, is indeed 
9 129 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

a beehive of mission industry. The pupils pay 
tuition, which makes the work partially self- 
supporting. 

Miss Kelly only had this one day to show 
us the South Gate work, and she has certainly 
made good use of the time. We were kept on 
the trot all day. We took luncheon at the 
modest little home in a remodeled Chinese 
building, where she and Miss Snyder live, 
looked over the building for the girls' school 
under construction, and then spent a couple of 
hours calling in the homes of some of the Chi- 
nese Christians. Miss Kelly goes like a beam 
of sunshine among these humble people, teach- 
ing, comforting, praying. Their affection for 
her can be measured by their beaming faces 
when she approaches. No call from the home- 
land could tempt her away from her people for 
a moment. She and Miss Snyder live alone in 
the midst of this great, teeming Chinese popu- 
lation, several miles distant from any others of 
our workers, but one would go a long distance 
to find any happier, more buoyant workers than 
they are. 

The visits to the homes of the Chinese Chris- 
tians was most interesting. In almost every place 
we were served with tea, salted watermelon seeds, 
peanuts, and cakes. You must at least stay long 
enough to drink a little tea out of the odd little 
cups or you may offend. With so many places 
and so much tea and '^al-es served, we found 
130 



ON TO NANKING. 

the watermelon seeds very convenient. Owing 
to the hard covering that has to be cracked be- 
tween the teeth, and the very small kernel one 
finds after this operation is completed, a good 
deal of time can be thus occupied without having 
to eat or drink very much. 

Practically all of the women in these homes 
have bound feet, and are obliged to stump about 
painfully on their heels, stiff-kneed and awk- 
ward. No Christian mother binds the feet of 
her little girls, and large numbers of the non- 
Christian Chinese are giving up this cruel cus- 
tom, but the fashion still has a great hold on 
the Chinese people, especially in the remote 
places. 

One is impressed with the fact that the 
Chinese lead the simple life. They are hard- 
working, frugal, exceedingly economical. Their 
clothing is very sensible, their food simple and 
nourishing, and their houses very plain. One 
sees no waste or display in China. Perhaps 
necessity has been the mother of Chinese sim- 
plicity, but at any rate this side of Chinese life 
is wholesome. 

If you want to find something more interest- 
ing than a State or National convention at home, 
just hold a conference with a group of Chinese 
workers in the heart of a great, needy Chinese 
city. We did this late this afternoon at the 
South Gate chapel. There were some twenty 
present — the pastor, Chinese doctor, the teachers, 
131 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

Bible women, volunteer workers, and other 
deeply interested Christians. We gathered about 
tables, drank the inevitable tea, nibbled at cakes 
and peanuts, and talked of the Kingdom. If one 
has any idea that the Chinese are inferior people, 
he will have that notion knocked out of him at 
a meeting like this. Rarely have we seen more 
zealous, earnest people than these. There was 
much prayer and earnest discussion. 

It does not take long in a meeting of this kind 
to make us forget the peculiar racial differences 
which often keep us from real understanding of 
the Chinese race. What matters the almond 
skin, the slanted eye, the peculiar dress, the odd 
cue, the bound foot, and the strange tongue, when 
Christ stands in the midst ? He is the great Uni- 
fier, and how trivial the outward differences ap- 
pear when we are united in Him! 

These people at South Gate have a vision. 
They say: "Give us a good building where we 
can preach to the crowds and teach the people, 
and in five years we will have five hundred mem- 
bers as a leaven in the heart of this great city." 

The great mass of the Chinese are devil wor- 
shipers — that is, they fear evil spirits with an 
awful fear and try to propitiate them. Miss 
Kelley told of a terrible fire which occurred near 
the chapel a few years ago. These ignorant 
people believe that fires are caused by demons, 
and no one can take them into their homes or 
touch them for a number of days if their house 
132 



ON TO NANKING. 

is burned. In this fire a large number were 
frightfully burned. Those of the relatives who 
were less fearful of the devils carried these 
burned sufferers into the chapel and left them 
there. Not a person among the non-Christians 
dare touch these suffering people, but Miss 
Kelly and the Chinese Christians worked all 
night to save their lives and alleviate their suf- 
fering. This tender ministry made a profound 
impression on all the people of the community 
and did more to make friends for the work than 
anything that has happened. The fearlessness 
and devotion of the Christian Chinese in the face 
of the pitiful fear of demons held by the heathen 
people has been a remarkable testimony to Chris- 
tianity. 

Nanking, October 2d. 

It is becoming increasingly difficult to keep 
this daily journal. We are pushed almost to the 
limit of physical endurance in the daily program 
of mission visitation and conference, which 
makes it very difficult to sit down between ten 
o'clock and midnight, before retiring, and set 
down the events of the day. One could do it 
with some degree of satisfaction if it only ran 
through a period of a few days or weeks, but 
when the process extends into months, as this 
will, so much the worse for the journal. I fear 
there will be considerable periods when this work 
will have to entirely wait. 
133 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

This has been a full day — too full to assimi- 
late all we have seen and heard. We have visited 
the University of Nanking, our girls' school, 
and the Union Bible School, in which we have 
a share. Never before has it fully dawned on 
me the tremendous part which Christian educa- 
tion has to play in the redemption of these lands. 
John R. Mott was right when he said, "The 
future of China does not depend on the friend- 
ship of governors nor the attitude of officials, 
but it does depend on the number of children in 
the Christian schools." Because of the revolu- 
tion, the counter revolution, the poverty of the 
people, and the unrest in the land, the Govern- 
ment's modern system of schools has practically 
come to naught. Christianity and education are 
inseparable, and the great majority of effective 
modern education carried on in China is in the 
hands of the missionaries. 

We feel that the University of Nanking is 
the finest exhibition of practical Christian unity 
which we have seen anywhere in the East. The 
effort and expenditure of money has been fully 
justified and the school will not only prove to 
be the bulwark of our work in Central China, 
but it will have a very great part in inspiring 
and shaping the Chinese educational work of the 
future. Because of the economic and revolu- 
tionary conditions in Central China, the school 
has suffered many grave handicaps at its very 
beginning, and this will make its development 
134 



ON TO NANKING. 

slower than was anticipated. However, includ- 
ing the middle and high school and all depart- 
ments, there are nearly five hundred students in 
attendance. 

We attended the chapel services of the col- 
lege department early this morning, and spoke 
briefly to the students. Never have I seen a 
finer appearing body of students gathered to- 
gether. This is certainly the seed-sowing that 
will bring harvest. These young men are to be 
the leaders in the China of the future. Mr. 
Holman, the Christian moving-picture man, who 
has been out to the East with Mr. Rowland, a 
layman of the Southern Presbyterian Board, 
joined us this morning and took a motion picture 
of the students as they came out of chapel. We 
are hoping to show this and other moving pic- 
tures of the work when we get home. The uni- 
versity campus consists of seventy acres of fine 
land on the edge of the city, which has been 
purchased by Mr. Meigs, of our own mission. 
He is one of the champion mission land buyers 
in the East. It is a very difficult process and 
takes infinite patience and tact. The land has 
been purchased piece by piece in very small tracts 
and has been secured very cheaply. Our own 
former hospital, boys' school, and missionary 
homes are at one end of the tract, and those of 
the Methodists at the other. The union is with 
the Presbyterians, Methodists, and our own peo- 
ple. Each of us were carrying on a feeble edu- 
135 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

cational work before, which in the union has 
grown into what I am describing. The rehgious 
differences of the West do not perpetuate them- 
selves to any great extent in the East, where the 
great wall of heathenism rears itself so high. 
The preaching and teaching to the Chinese in 
regard to Christianity must be of the simplest 
and most direct sort. They have no interest 
whatever in the creeds and formulas of the West, 
and the missionaries are too sensible to try to 
impose them upon them. The fight to implant 
Christianity is too big a task to waste any time 
trying to impart man's creedal interpretations of 
it. The question at the front is never "what type 
of church will prevail?" but "can Christianity 
make good among these benighted people?" So 
it can be readily seen how easy it is to unite in 
a work of Christian education like the univer- 
sity. Instead of weak, divided effort, with sadly 
inadequate teaching force, we have now united 
effort with a strong staff and a school that is 
making a name for Christianity in all Central 
China. Our people have stood for Christian 
unity in China for twenty-five years, and when 
the opportunity came to have this practical dem- 
onstration of it in an educational way, F. E. 
Meigs and our missionaries helped open the way 
and work out the plan. In fact, we heard on 
every side that Mr. Meigs is responsible for the 
university more than any other man. 
136 



ON TO NANKING. 

I doubt whether there is an individual church 
at home, or a single mission of any communion 
in China, which has in it more of the spirit of 
real unity than the University of Nanking. And 
yet our workers and every one else has the same 
liberty possessed before. 

Christian unity is coming faster in the mis- 
sion fields than at home. Christ prayed that 
"they all may be one — that the world may be- 
lieve." It seems that in these days Christ is 
making the believers in the ends of the world 
a challenge to call us to be one at home. 

The university has forty teachers, twelve of 
whom are foreigners (Americans), the rest be- 
ing Chinese. Our representatives are F. E. 
Meigs, C. E. Settlemyer, Guy W. Sarvis, Clar- 
ence Hamilton, and Dr. Jas. Butchart. Besides 
the regular middle, high school, and college de- 
partments, there are the medical, the normal, and 
the agricultural departments. 

The university has some excellent buildings, 
which have been erected at an amazingly small 
cost. For instance, Science Hall, a large, three- 
story brick building, was put up for $10,000. At 
home it would probably have cost $40,000. 

One of the most striking things about the 
university is the spirit of the Faculty. They 
are men on fire with the importance of their 
task, from President Bowen down. The librarian 
held the same office at Princeton University at 
137 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

a salary of $3,000 a year. He is now teacher 
and librarian here at $550 a year, and a dozen 
Princetons could not call him home. 

We doubt if there is any department of the 
university which promises to influence the Chi- 
nese more than the agricultural school conducted 
by Professor Bailey. When he first started it 
there was grave doubt on the part of many as 
to the possibility of enlisting Chinese students 
in the experimental work, which means hard 
labor out of doors. The students, however, are 
enthusiastic under Professor Bailey's leadership, 
and can be seen each day working with interest 
at their tasks. Chang Chien, Secretary of Agri- 
culture, is much interested in this work, and has 
set aside for the university a large area on Purple 
Mountain nearby for reforestation. Trees are 
being planted here in large quantities. This is 
one of China's greatest needs. Through Chang 
Chien, Professor Bailey is also settling refugees 
on waste lands granted to him by the Agricul- 
tural Department of the Government. 

Mr. Meigs, besides being at the head of the 
Bible teaching in the university, is head of the 
middle school, with one hundred and fifty stu- 
dents. It is too heavy a task for him and he 
should soon have relief that he may devote his 
whole time to Bible work. 

It was an inspiration to go through Dr. Mack- 
lin's old hospital, now a part of the medical de- 
partment of the university. This is sacred 

138 



ON TO NANKING. 

ground where this wonderful man has spent his 
life for nearly thirty years. President Bowen 
tells us that even now the long service of Dr. 
Macklin is the greatest heritage the work has. 
No matter what we call the hospital in the fu- 
ture, it will always be "Maulin's place" to the 
hosts of Chinese who come for healing. Here 
Dr. Macklin started our work in China with 
a little dispensary "in the shadow of the Drum 
Tower," standing near by. Here he learned his 
first Chinese, did the first preaching of the gos- 
pel, baptized his first converts, translated his 
first literature, and opened China for our work 
by serving the multitude of sick and afflicted 
who came to him. This work grew into a hos- 
pital, and now into a Christian medical school for 
the training of Chinese Christian men that they 
may serve their own people in the name of 
Christ. Dr. Butchart, who has spent seventeen 
years in building up the remarkable medical work 
in Luchowfu, is our representative in this school. 

Nearby are the sheds which Dr. Macklin used 
as his beggar wards, for his tender heart could 
never bear to let the outcast and starving go un- 
attended. He was always practical about this 
work, however, and made the beggars work for 
what they got. 

The doctor has not the strength to carry on 
this kind of work now, but he is as busy as ever, 
with more freedom to do what his good judg- 
ment commends to him. He translates, evan- 
139 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

gelizes, lectures in the medical school, and uses 
his influence for Christ everywhere. 

Our girls' school, with an attendance of one 
hundred, is one of our best pieces of work in 
China. Here Miss Emma Lyon has toiled for 
many years and built up a school second to none 
of its kind in Central China. Now that she is 
home on furlough, Miss Edna Dale is in charge. 
Miss Banta, who has recently come out and is 
still in the language school, is assisting. This 
school has been going on for seventeen years 
and has won rare confidence among the Chinese. 
The building is far from adequate, and it is 
almost pitiful to see how the girls who are board- 
ers are crowded for sleeping room. Even the 
attic has been curtained off and is crowded with 
neat little beds. Very soon now this fine school 
should have another good building. We attended 
chapel and heard the girls sing, and talked to 
them through an interpreter, and each received 
from them a silk Chinese flag and banner of the 
school made by themselves. After chapel we 
called at the dining hall where they ate, but the 
chopsticks ceased working and the rice remained 
undisturbed in the little bowls when we entered, 
for the foreigners' presence embarrassed these 
modest, well-behaved girls. 

On our way to the Bible Training School 

we stopped at a Chinese bath house, just off 

one of the main streets. A bath costs two cents 

in this place, including the services of an at- 

140 



ON TO NANKING. 

tendant, who cleans one's ears and shaves his 
eyebrows. The bathing apparatus consists of a 
small tub, in which one soaps and scrubs, and a 
large tub filled with steaming, hot water, in which 
one soaks as long as he likes. There were two 
scrubbing and three soaking when we entered. 
These places are very popular in the winter, 
when the hot water affords a cheap means of 
warming one through. 

We also visited the Methodist Girls' School. 
Here they have a strong school, with fine, ade- 
quate buildings and three women in charge, al- 
though the attendance is not as large as that of 
our own school. Another place of interest visited 
was the Presbyterian Women's Bible Training 
School, which is doing a most commendable 
work. Here we met a missionary lady who had 
been in Nanking forty years. She and her 
husband preceded Dr. and Mrs. Macklin by ten 
years, and she had many interesting things to tell 
concerning those hard pioneer days, when misun- 
derstanding and persecution were rife. Missions 
in China to-day owe more than ever can be ex- 
pressed to the patient, difficult task of these early 
pioneers. Our work is comparatively new in 
China, and we have inherited the results of this 
early pioneering. 

One of the most important educational cen- 
ters in Nanking is the Union Bible Training 
School. In this group of buildings we have 
our own dormitory, with special classrooms for 
141 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

our own students. This building was given by- 
Miss Myrtle Warren, of Beatrice, Nebraska. It 
cost $6,000, but to duplicate it in America would 
take at least $15,000. Most of the classroom 
work is done in a united way, and our American 
instructor is Frank Garrett, of Drake, who has 
spent nearly twenty years in China. We also 
have Li Ho Fu as instructor. He is one of our 
strongest men in China and of the Li family, 
famous in our China mission for having given 
us three preachers. His brother, Alexander Li, 
is a graduate of Hiram and professor of Science 
in the University of Nanking. The bodies rep- 
resented in this ministerial training school are 
the Presbyterians, Southern Presbyterians, Meth- 
odists, and our own people. The Northern Bap- 
tists are now asking to come in. The combined 
teaching force enables the school to provide a 
good course and excellent training, which would 
not be within the reach of either church working 
alone. We must give to China high-grade men 
with good training for the ministry. No man 
with meager equipment can successfully face the 
problem of an alien philosophy and an old, non- 
Christian religion. There are eighty pupils, all 
told, in this union evangelistic training school. 

Nanking, October 4th. 

Yesterday and to-day have gone by with a 
whirl. Yesterday we visited the famous Ming 
Tomb, five miles from the city. Mr. Meigs went 
142 



ON TO NANKING. 

with us, and it was a rare treat to have him talk 
of the ancient days of China, of her emperors 
and her interesting history. No man can do it 
better than he.* We drove through the desolate 
ruins of the old Manchu city, utterly destroyed 
by the revolutionists and the people slaughtered. 
He pointed out the place where two hundred 
Manchu women drowned themselves rather than 
fall into the hands of the soldiers. We drove 
on through the old Forbidden City of the Ming 
Dynasty, which contained the imperial palace. It 
is all in ruins now, although much of the great 
wall is standing. This imperial city had five 
gates, most of them still standing, with five 
bridges across the moats leading to the former 
palace. The first of the Ming emperors built 
the city seven hundred years ago. Outside the 
outer Nanking city wall we approached the 
mountain at the foot of which the great tomb is 
located. China has taken no care of her ancient 
historical relics, especially when they were con- 
nected with dynasties that have passed from 
power, and this tomb and its surroundings is no 
exception. All that remains of the once im- 
mense and elaborate grounds is the mile-long 
rows of monuments, once marking each, side of 
the royal approach to the tomb. The great me- 
morial shaft at the entrance, mounted on the 
back of a stone turtle, still stands, and guardian 
monuments in the shape of horses, camels, ele- 
*F. E. Meigs died August 23, 1915. 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

phants, and other animals, besides the stone sol- 
diers and priests, are quite well preserved in 
spite of the vandalism everywhere apparent. 
The tomb, an immense structure, like a great 
stone buttress to the hill just back of it, stands 
as it was in the year 1400, when constructed. 
Through the center of it is an arched passage- 
way with an inclined stone floor, facing the slope 
of the hill against which the tomb is built. Be- 
neath this floor and back in the hill the body 
of the first Ming emperor is supposed to have 
been buried. The tombs of the remaining em- 
perors of the Ming dynasty are at Pekin, to 
which the capital was removed from Nanking 
early in the fifteenth century. 

The great temple which faced the tomb, a 
quarter of a mile away, is in almost total ruins. 
Closer to the tomb is a smaller temple for the 
worship of the emperor's spirit, where the minia- 
ture throne and the sacred tablet to his memory 
still may be seen. Mr. Meigs gave us a demon- 
stration of how this worship of the emperor was 
carried on. 

The whole place, tomb and all, is desolate, 
but China marches on to face the challenge of 
better things. She denies the sacredness of these 
once holy places, but will she find the really 
sacred and life-giving heart of what is offered 
her from the West? We believe she will. 

To-day has been Sunday and filled with de- 
lightful experiences. Our Drum Tower church 
144 



ON TO NANKING. 

was filled with eager, bright-faced students this 
morning, with two hundred and fifty in the 
Sunday-school. The building is not large enough 
for the classes, and the girls of the school re- 
main in their building for their part of the Sun- 
day-school. There were fully three hundred 
people at the church service. Mr. Chun Li Sun, 
one of our strongest men, is pastor of the church. 
He also teaches in the school. I spoke through 
Mr. Alexander Li as interpreter. This church 
is the fruit of the labors of Mr. Meigs and 
Dr. Macklin. Professor Bower spoke at the 
university church, at the other end of the campus, 
and Mr. Doan spoke at the South Gate church. 
After speaking at the Drum Tower church, I 
was driven through the city in time to speak at 
the communion service at South Gate. There 
was no evidence that it was Sunday as we made 
our way through the busy, crowded streets. The 
street in front of the South Gate chapel is Nan- 
king's Broadway, fifteen feet wide. There really 
seems to be as many people pouring through as 
traverse New York's Broadway. My driver 
only made his way through by constantly shout- 
ing for people to get out of the way. Everyone 
seemed rather accommodating and good natured, 
paying no attention to being jostled or pushed 
about. A good congregation of Christians par- 
took of the communion at the church. This 
beautiful memorial has the same appeal the whole 
world around. 

145 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

This afternoon, early, I attended the women's 
meeting in the chapel under Miss Kelly's and 
Miss Snyder's home. There were one hundred 
women present, most of them stumping pain- 
fully to the meeting on their little bound feet, 
many of them carrying children. Mrs. Doan 
spoke to them while Miss Kelly interpreted. 
They were deeply interested in what she told 
them of what Christ meant to American women. 

Later in the afternoon the professor gave 
a strong message to the foreigners at the uni- 
versity church. The service was attended by 
about fifty, mostly American missionaries. 

To-night each of us spoke, my place being at 
South Gate. The hall was packed and many 
tried to get in who were not able. There was 
a crowd standing in the street trying to hear all 
through the service. Three fourths of the audi- 
ence were men, and all listened eagerly. It 
makes one simplify his message and weigh his 
words when he realizes that there are people 
in the audience who have never heard of Christ 
before. Never before have I so longed to speak 
in the language of the people. 



146 



XIV. 

One of China's Interesting Small 
Cities. 

Chuchow, China, October 5th. 

We have had a most interesting journey to- 
day from Nanking to this place. Chuchow is 
about forty miles north of Nanking, on the new 
Pukow-Tientsin Railroad, one of the best trunk 
lines in China. 

We started at eight from the Drum Tower, 
and drove in carriages to Shagwan, the river 
port for Nanking. Here we took the launch 
across the Yangtse to Pukow, which is the rail- 
road terminus. We were much surprised here 
to see the great terminal station which is being 
constructed. It compares favorably with many 
of the great stations in America, and the nearby 
railroad shops are certainly a commentary on 
China's determination to adopt Western improve- 
ments. The land was very low where these ter- 
minals are being constructed, and a distant hill 
is being leveled down to furnish earth enough 
for proper filling. We were strikingly reminded 
of China's changes by the wheelbarrows, don- 
147 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

keys, and jinrikishas which lined the road beside 
the modern train. At the terminal we took pas- 
sage to the old city of Pukow, five miles farther 
back in the country. On alighting from the train 
we still had a mile to go, and we were placed 
in waiting jinrikishas by the Chinese pastor of 
our Pukow church, who had come to greet us. 
Our coolies bumped us along over a very rough 
road and we were constantly apprehensive of 
being overturned and rolled down an embank- 
ment or into a ditch. As we entered the city 
through an archway in the wall, we were met by 
our day school of twenty-five boys and their two 
teachers, who had come out to greet us. On 
approaching the chapel, our missionary, Mr. 
Dannenberg, left the paying of the jinrikisha 
men to the Chinese pastor and we started on. 
We had not gone far when our attention was 
attracted by a great uproar, and on looking 
around we discovered that the pastor was the 
center of an interested crowd of fully fifty peo- 
ple, and that those immediately about him were 
gesticulating wildly and shouting at the top of 
their voices. Mr. Dannenberg returned to see 
what the difficulty was and found that the pastor 
had insisted on paying the men only the regular 
Chinese rate of five cents each and they were 
insisting on seven cents each because we were 
foreigners. It looked as though our Chinese 
friend might have a rough time of it, so Mr. 
Dannenberg instructed him to pay the men the 
148 



ONE OF CHINA'S SMALL CITIES. 

extra two cents. He insisted that the jinrikisha 
men were imposing on us because we were for- 
eigners, but finally paid them, and the excite- 
ment ceased. As seven cents in Chinese is only 
three and one half cents in our money, we felt 
that we had not been seriously robbed. 

We have a rented street chapel building with 
school rooms and quarters for the pastor and 
teachers in Pukow. The rent is six dollars a 
month, and although the rooms are humble, a 
good work is being done. We should buy prop- 
erty soon for a good chapel and school, for land 
is rapidly rising in price in this important place. 

When we boarded the afternoon train for this 
place, we found our medical missionary. Dr. 
Osgood, on board. The thirty-mile ride through 
the rice paddies and low-lying hills was most 
interesting. This is not as fertile a district as 
Nantungchow, nor as thickly populated, and yet 
there are many people. Most of them are quite 
poor, and this year a plague of locusts and a 
serious flood have done great damage to crops, 
in many places entirely destroying them. Many 
of the poor people face a famine and starvation 
this coming winter. We saw many people out in 
boats in the flooded rice fields, raking the bottom 
for the rice stalks with the hope that some of the 
grains had not yet rotted and might serve as food 
in this time of need. We saw others pulling 
roots and bulbs from the bottom of the swamps 
to be used as food. The missionaries face heart- 
149 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

breaking work this winter in trying to care for 
these suffering people. 

Chuchow is a city of 15,000, and in the center 
of a great district. We have a well-developed 
work here. Dr. Osgood has the hospital, and 
W. R. Hunt and Mr. Dannenberg are engaged in 
evangelistic work. Mr. Hunt is home on fur- 
lough now. Miss Margaret Darst has just come 
to the field and will engage in women's work. 

This evening we have enjoyed a visit with 
Shi Gwei Biao, our oldest evangelist, who called 
to pay his respects. He was the first result of 
our China mission work, having been baptized 
by Dr. Macklin nearly thirty years ago. He was 
a Chinese story teller and an opium fiend when 
Dr. Macklin found him, but since his conversion 
he has been a noble Christian and one of the 
great preachers of China. He is now seventy 
years of age, but still strong and vigorous. He 
is general evangelist for this whole district and 
goes far and near preaching the gospel and 
directing the younger men. Wherever he goes 
the people turn out in large numbers to hear him. 
We asked him what he liked to do best, and he 
said he had rather preach than do anything 
else in the world. He expressed the hope that 
the Lord would spare him some years yet that 
he might preach to his people. We asked him 
about his hope of his people accepting Christ, 
and he said he believed China would become a 
Christian nation. He stated that the great bur- 
150 



ONE OF CHINA'S SMALL CITIES. 

den on China's back was superstition, and that 
only Christ could lift that burden. His feeling 
is that the work will not be rapid in China until 
strong native leaders are developed who can lead 
the people and build up strong churches. He 
feels that the missionaries will be indispensable 
for many years to come and that one of their 
chief tasks is the training of these Chinese lead- 
ers. On being asked about the rapid changes 
in China and the attitude of the people toward 
Christianity in comparison with the past, he as- 
sured us that these changes were most remark- 
able. A dozen years ago the people used to 
stone him at Luchowfu, one of our stations. 
Now when he goes there, six hundred people 
gather to hear him preach. In the early days of 
our work at South Gate, Nanking, the people 
would spit upon him until his clothes and even 
his face were covered. Now when he preaches 
there the people cannot get in and it is necessary 
to hold a succession of services to accommodate 
the crowds. 

We learned that he and his aged wife, who 
is as consecrated as he is, have recently taken 
in a little, abandoned baby, which they are rais- 
ing. This means great sacrifice for these old 
people. About twenty years ago they picked up 
a little abandoned baby girl and kept her. She 
grew into girlhood, went to our girls' school in 
Nanking and graduated there, and is now the 
teacher in our girls' school here in Chuchow. 
151 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

"Brother Shi," as this good old man is called, 
for short, says that the opium habit has almost 
entirely disappeared in China. It can no longer 
be grown in China, and the laws are so rigid 
against its use that a man must hide himself 
very carefully if he uses it. Formerly one ad- 
dicted to the use of the drug would teach others 
through the treating habit, but now the risk is 
too great to do that. The law in this district 
provides for capital punishment as the penalty 
for the use of the drug ! Mr. Shi says that there 
is still much binding of the feet of the little girls, 
especially in the smaller towns and villages. The 
chief reason seems to be that young women can- 
not marry well unless they have "beautiful" small 
feet. He states that Christianity and education 
are having their influence, however, and that the 
custom is bound to disappear. On asking him 
further about China's evangelization, he replied: 
"The root of China's redemption lies in your 
honorable land." 

Chuchow, Tuesday evening, October 6th. 

This morning early we went through the hos- 
pital conducted by Dr. E. I. Osgood. On the 
way to the hospital we passed over a much- 
frequented stone bridge and were much inter- 
ested in Dr. Osgood's friend and competitor, the 
native pharmacist. He has a long table under 
an awning and here dispenses his strange and 
gruesome remedies to the people who are super- 
152 



ONE OF CHINA'S SMALI. CITIES. 

stitious enough to buy them. His chief stock 
consists of snake skins, bugs, and medicinal 
charms. His booth is just opposite that of an 
old Chinese fortune teller, who has been twenty 
years on the bridge, and from the attitude of 
the people one would think that their conception 
of the powers of the two men was very similar. 
A block from this place is the Christian hospital, 
which presents a vivid contrast to the cheap 
necromancy of the native medicine man. This 
institution was built by J. M. Tisdale and wife, 
of Covington, Kentucky, and is not only a place 
of healing, but a gospel plant and a social and 
reform center for the whole city. The hospital 
was built for $5,000, and accommodates a great 
many patients. The doctor's morning clinic is a 
real study in physical and social needs. He has 
two excellent Chinese assistants, who look after 
the major part of the detail work. Each morn- 
ing a chapel service is conducted, which the hos- 
pital and dispensary patients attend, together 
with the hospital staff. Here either Dr. Osgood 
or the Chinese evangelist preaches. 

Dr. Osgood and his hospital have had a won- 
derful influence in the city and district, espe- 
cially during and since the revolution. While 
the fighting was going on, Chang Schweng, the 
general of the old regime, was driven out of 
Nanking with his army. He marched north with 
his hungry and ruthless soldiers, and Chuchow 
was right in the track of his army. As the sol- 
153 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

diers approached the city and began to march 
around one side of the wall, the population was 
terrified because of their fear that the soldiers 
would loot and burn the city. The city gates 
were all closed and barricaded, and the fright- 
ened people expected an attack at any moment. 
In the midst of this great distress Dr. Osgood 
was let down outside the wall one night and 
visited the general. Through his good offices 
the general promised to take his soldiers on with- 
out molesting the city, and no harm was done 
the inhabitants. After this the doctor was looked 
upon as the strong friend of the city, and the 
officials came to him for help in many things. 
After the army had passed, a band of a thou- 
sand robbers broke into the city from the moun- 
tains, bent on robbing the magistrate's yamen. 
The people of the municipality were divided into 
different elements and it looked as though the 
city might be torn with a terrible conflict. It 
was Dr. Osgood's cool head that saved the day. 
He worked out a plan of organization through 
the Reform Society and so banded the right- 
thinking people together that the plans of the 
rogues were entirely defeated. After this a Red 
Cross society was formed with the chief official 
of the city at the head of it. There were many 
refugees in the city with nothing to eat. Our 
missionaries organized the forces to rebuild one 
of the main streets of the city, which was in 
wretched repair. Dr. Osgood and the officials 
154 



ONE OF CHINA'S SMALL CITIES. 

raised the money through subscriptions, and he 
prevailed upon the new railroad to provide rock 
ballast for the paving. He then put the refugees 
to work on the street and thus kept them clothed 
and fed through the winter months. A street 
cleaning force was organized, vaccination for 
smallpox established, a campaign carried on 
against gambling, and public lavatories were con- 
structed. Later the doctor led the city officials 
and Reform Society to buy property for a park 
and playground in the midst of the city and 
move onto it an old theater from outside the 
city wall, which is being turned into a public 
reading room. 

During all of this time large public meetings 
were being held in the hospital compound, where 
topics of vital interest were discussed, and at 
the same time our church was being used for 
the meetings of the Reform Society. After the 
danger of the revolution was past, the citizens 
of the city erected a fine memorial tablet on the 
hospital grounds on which is set forth their ap- 
preciation of the work of Dr. Osgood in their 
time of need. The tablet was made by the man 
who formerly was the leading atheist of the city. 
The climax of it all is that now a class for the 
study of the Bible has been formed for the chief 
men of the city, including the president of the 
Red Cross society and other leaders. 

A stroll through the city to-day proved to 
be intensely interesting. The main street is un- 
155 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

evenly paved with slabs of very hard limestone 
which have been down for centuries. Wheel- 
barrows are the chief means of transportation, 
and the large wooden wheels have worn grooves 
in these rocks, sometimes to the depth of two 
inches or more. The barbers carry their utensils 
with them and do their work on the open 
street, wherever they chance to find a customer. 
There is considerable wheat and corn in this 
country, and this is ground in the little, mud- 
floor houses along the street. Two small, round, 
limestone burrs are fitted up, one on top of the 
other; the grain is fed through a hole in the 
upper stone, and a blindfolded donkey patiently 
turns the little mill. In one of the houses we 
saw a woman harnessed to the shaft turning 
the mill. China is indeed a place of small in- 
dustries engaged in by the many. Little stores 
and little workshops. Nowhere do you find evi- 
dences of great monopolies out here. The busi- 
ness enterprises are all small, and there is regular 
competition. Wealth is quite evenly distributed, 
and a man of small means occupies a place of 
considerable influence. It would seem too bad 
to introduce the great combinations which cen- 
tralize wealth into this land where the people 
live the simple, frugal life. 

During the afternoon we visited the home 
of one of the poorer families. The little, one- 
room house was built of stone blocks and cov- 
ered with grass thatch. The floor was of 

156 



ONE OF CHINA'S SMALL CITIES. 

earth, and the house was the home of the 
donkey as well as the family. The man 
was a peddler of flaxseed oil for cooking pur- 
poses, which he prepared with his little donkey 
mill and a large kettle, in which the oil was 
cooked from the flour. There were very few 
utensils in the house. The wife was cooking the 
supper over a clay stove, in a very thin iron 
kettle, under which she was feeding the fire with 
dry grass. The fuel for cooking is entirely com- 
posed of grass and reeds cut from the hills and 
waste places. This is true largely of the better 
homes, as well as those of the poor. Wood is 
very scarce in China, and coal too expensive yet 
for use. The people have no fires for heating 
their houses in winter, save perhaps a small 
brazier with charcoal in it for the hands and 
feet. The man in this home, although poor, was 
clean of face and dress, and his open, smiling 
countenance indicated that he was enjoying his 
Christian life. He courteously accompanied us 
some distance on our way, until Mr. Dannen- 
berg, the missionary, urged him to return. 

Another place of interest visited was the city 
pawnshop. This is the largest and wealthiest 
institution in the town. We passed through a 
series of courts and heavily barred doors to 
reach the storage department. There we found 
great rooms filled with racks running clear to 
the roof, on which were stored thousands of 
bundles of clothing, bedding, household utensils, 

157 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

firearms, and a great variety of other articles 
that had been pawned. It seems to be a very 
common custom for the people to pawn all of 
their winter garments during the summer, and 
vice versa. Many of the articles were of very 
little value, but still sufficient to provide them 
with a few cash for a time of desperate need. 
We were inspired by a visit to our mission 
boys' school of ninety pupils. They were hav- 
ing their chapel service of thirty minutes, in 
which they sang songs and listened to a twenty 
m.inutes' gospel talk. These boys are in the pri- 
mary and grammar grades, and are bright, ener- 
getic fellows. These schools are one of the 
greatest assets of our missionary work, for from 
them will come the principal Christians and lead- 
ers of the future. It is difficult to reach the adult 
people, who have always been warped by heathen 
superstition and ignorance, but the boys and girls 
are our great opportunity. This excellent school 
uses a rambling old grain storage for class- 
rooms. The floors are of dirt, and one side of 
each room is entirely open for light and ventila- 
tion in the summer. During the winter these 
open places are closed with oiled paper, which 
is pasted over a framework of wood. A good 
school building for these boys could be provided 
for $1,000 if we had it. Nearby is also a girls' 
school of forty pupils, in which excellent work 
is being done. 

158 



ONE OF CHINA'S SMALL CITIES. 

ChuchoWy Wednesday, October fth. 

"Of all born among people, none like unto 
him," is the gilt inscription hung high in the 
arched ceiling of the Confucian temple in Chu- 
chow. A rare old temple with a long, wide ap- 
proach and three courts. On the tablet of the 
holy of holies before which the people have long 
worshiped is the inscription, "The great, holy 
one, the supreme teacher, Confucius," and in the 
open court before this shrine our missionaries 
have marked out a municipal tennis court, with 
the enthusiastic approval of the city officials and 
elders. When the tennis court was suggested 
as a good means of exercise and social inter- 
course, the chief men of the city pointed out 
that the temple grounds were little used now and, 
being central and adequate, would afford the best 
place available. After studying the temple and 
noting its unkempt and decaying condition, we 
went through still another court to the large lec- 
ture hall, where the disciples of Confucius for- 
merly taught the people concerning this great 
sage, whom the majority of Confucianists had 
deified. Here we were confronted with another 
surprise. The walls were covered with large 
placards and mottoes in Chinese, and when they 
were translated to us they sounded strangely 
familiar. The central one was, "Jesus, the Light 
of the world," and the others were in keeping 
with it. The missionaries told us that last year, 
when our China Christian Convention was to be 
159 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

held in Chuchow, there was no building large 
enough for it, and the leading men of the city 
offered the use of the Confucian temple, which 
was accepted. Dare any one say that there are 
no changes in China? This turning from the 
old things is a hopeful and at the same time a 
disquieting sign. If the church does not take 
advantage of the opportunity to teach the people 
of Christ, where will they go? To atheism, we 
sadly fear. These Chuchow people who have 
broken loose from the old things will have a 
chance to hear the Word of God, but how about 
the two million in the whole Chuchow district 
with only six missionaries and a small group of 
native evangelists to teach them? 

After the visit to the temple we called on the 
chief men of the city in their large group of resi- 
dences enclosed in a series of walled courts. We 
were received with the greatest courtesy by these 
dignified, gracious Chinese gentlemen, with whom 
our missionaries have the closest intimacy. We 
had a very interesting conversation together as 
tea was being served. All the conversation was 
through the missionaries' interpretation, save 
that of one of the younger men of the group, 
who is one of the right-hand men in our church, 
having been converted in the meetings conducted 
by George Sherwood Eddy two years ago. 
These officials are men of means and serve the 
city as officials without salary. Unlike the old 
type of official, so prevalent in most of China 
i6o 











Chinese farmer watering his crop. This farm was less 
than half an acre. 



_ 

^ 



Chinese laborers pumping water for irrigation by foot- 
power. 



ONE OF CHINA'S SMALL CITIES. 

even now, these men are honest, upright, pubHc- 
spirited men. Most of their questions were in 
regard to the European war and America's atti- 
tude in the matter. The Chinese are intensely 
interested in the war situation just now, and very 
nervous because of Japan's operations in Tsing- 
Tao, where they are driving the Germans from 
Chinese soil. They seem to be very doubtful of 
Japan's motives in the matter, and fearful that 
she is seeking Chinese territory for herself. 
They said, "The Chinese are eating much bitter- 
ness now because of Japan." These men were 
much interested in Mr. Doan's visit to China, 
and at another time, after asking him many 
questions concerning his business of brick mak- 
ing, they inquired if he had come to China at 
his own expense or that of the Missionary So- 
ciety. On being told that he had come with his 
family at his own charges to see the missionary 
work, they were much impressed by such interest 
on his part. 

Chuchow, October 8th. 

Yesterday and this morning were spent 
largely in conference with the missionaries and 
Shi Gwei Biao, our senior evangelist. Yester- 
day afternoon a service was held in the church, 
at which there was a fine attendance. This build- 
ing was built by Mr. Tisdale, of Kentucky, the 
same man' who built the hospital. The church 
cost $1,000, and it would be difficult to see how 

11 i6i 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

a better investment of the money could possibly 
have been made. How one wishes that this good 
man in the homeland, who has so generously put 
his money into the work, might come out and 
see for himself what an investment he has made 
for the Kingdom. If there is any finer monu- 
ment than this to erect in the memory of a dear 
one, as he has done, it would be hard to discover 
it. How much better such a memorial than a 
marble shaft over the grave of a departed rela- 
tive! 



162 



XV. 
Busy Wuhu By the Yangtse. 

Wuhu, October lOth. 

This is an important city of 150,000 inhab- 
itants, sixty miles above Nanking, on the Yang- 
tse. Mr. and Mrs. Alexander Paul, Mr. and 
Mrs. Bowman, and Miss Kate Miller are located 
here. After our arrival last night we attended 
a Chinese entertainment given at the union mis- 
sion high school, in which the Methodists, the 
Christian Advents, and our people are united. 
The Advent people own the building, and the 
rest share in the cost of teachers and running 
expense. There are more than one hundred boys 
in the school, and the work impresses one as 
being very valuable. The missions could not 
bear the expense of separate schools, but by 
going together a high-grade institution has been 
built up. 

The entertainment was most interesting and 
quite Chinese; the only part at all American 
being some selections by a small brass band 
which had been drilled by Mrs. Paul. The hall 
was beautifully decorated with flags of all na- 
tions, with large American and Chinese flags 
163 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

draped together back of the speakers' stand. A 
unique feature was several musical selections by 
a quartet of flute players with their odd bamboo' 
instruments. We could not forego cheering when 
they broke into the "Star- Spangled Banner" 
and "Yankee Doodle." The Chinese principal 
of the school gave an excellent address in Eng- 
lish, in which he emphasized the physical, in- 
tellectual, and moral elements in education, and 
closed by stressing the point that the ultimate 
aim of the school was to develop men for the 
Kingdom of God. R. A. Doan was called on 
and spoke through an interpreter on "Making 
Brick and Making Men," a talk which was much 
appreciated by these alert students. Anything 
which has to do with American ways of doing 
things is most fascinating to these people. 

After a musical program, tea, peanuts, and 
roasted watermelon seeds were passed around, 
and the literary part of the entertainment was 
then given. Although this was entirely in Chi- 
nese, it was interesting. Two young men who 
were down for Chinese jokes kept the crowd 
laughing for ten minutes each in most spirited 
speeches. One sally caused uproarious laughter, 
and the interpreter who sat next to me said that it 
was the statement, "The capital of Germany is 
called Paris." Another humorous part was the 
introduction of a "German machine" to the audi- 
ence. A young man fixed up to represent a 
manikin, with a fierce upstanding mustache, was 
164 



BUSY WUHU BY THE YANGTSE. 

carried in on a chair. He was placed in front 
of the audience, and another young man gave a 
lecture on his "machine," stopping every now 
and then and going through the motions of wind- 
ing up his invention. While he talked the ma- 
chine-like young man went through a series of 
jerks and gestures which greatly amused the 
audience. The performance was a take-off on 
the German machinery which has been so largely 
introduced in China in recent years. Another 
selection which greatly pleased the people was 
a Japanese dialect piece in Chinese. Of course, 
this was absolutely unintelligible to us, but the 
fact that they all roared while it was going on 
made the thing really humorous, even though 
both the dialect and the language in which it was 
spoken were entirely beyond us. 

To-day we have seen something of the work 
and the city. This day in China corresponds to 
our Fourth of July, as it is the day on which 
they celebrate the launching of their Republic. 
We were at the high school .again this morning, 
where Professor Bower gave the students a 
patriotic address, after which we watched the 
boys, dressed in their finest gowns, going through 
their well-executed drills and marches. 

The school building is outside the city, and on 
our way in we visited the home of Lord Li, one 
of the wealthiest men in all China. Because of 
the tax made upon him by the revolutionists, he 
has moved to Shanghai, but his great estate is 

165 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

still kept up by his servants. Alexander Paul, of 
this station, was formerly English tutor to this 
man's son. Lord Li is one of the sons of Li 
Hung Chang, the old-time statesman of China, 
with whom Americans became acquainted during 
his journey around the world some twenty years 
ago. This multimillionaire family has made its 
money largely out of pawnshops, and their great 
institutions of this kind are found in almost 
every important city of China. Because of the 
usury and sharp methods they have imposed on 
the people, this family has been most cordially 
hated by the Chinese. 

Our church property is well located in the 
heart of the business section of the city and con- 
sists of a fine, adequate piece of land, covered 
with rambling, ancient Chinese buildings. A 
good-sized chapel has been improvised in the 
center of this property, and a reading room and 
boys' school are cared for in the extra spaces. 
A good central building is much needed here — 
an equipment which can be used for church and 
lecture hall, night school, day school, adequate 
reading room, and a general evangelistic center. 
Any time that the chapel is now thrown open 
with advertised speaking, it is necessary to issue 
tickets to keep the crowd within possibilities of 
accommodation. 

Sometimes people at home wonder why a 
fine young woman of culture and refinement can 
think of coming out to a field where the people 
i66 



BUSY WUHU BY THE YANGTSE. 

are of an alien race and religion and "bury" 
herself in missionary work. From the view- 
point of the world it is inexcusable. It can only 
be explained from the standpoint of Christian 
self-forgetfulness in the welfare of others. Paul 
felt that he was debtor to the whole world, not 
because the world had given him anything, but 
because he had been more highly privileged than 
the world and had the greatest thing in the world 
to give it. To-day I had the rare privilege of 
spending a couple of hours in the little, adapted 
Chinese home of Kate Gait Miller. In the very 
heart of this great city of non-Christian Chinese 
this cultured Kentucky woman has "buried" her- 
self for the good of an alien people. With no 
other member of her own race anywhere near her 
she is serving in her quiet, patient way the women 
and children of China. She has not been on 
the field long ; so far she has only a small group 
of people about her, and has met with much to 
discourage, and yet there is no task which Amer- 
ica might offer that would turn her from her 
chosen work in China. And this fine young 
woman is only typical of a group of single 
women we have in this field. Miss Edna Dale, 
now in the girls' school, Nanking, has been in 
this city for years doing the same type of work. 
She has found her greatest satisfaction in itin- 
eration among the Chinese in towns and cities 
round about, and for months at a time has been 
denied the privilege of any home at all save the 
167 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

simple and often very unsanitary quarters of the 
Chinese themselves. 

A young man of real ability, who decides to 
give himself to the service of Christ at home, 
may spend his whole life in comparative ob- 
scurity. If he is a teacher, he may serve in a 
comparatively unknown college, content to mold 
thought and character for a moderate group of 
students ; if he is a doctor, his life may be spent 
in a small town, or he may be one of hundreds 
or thousands in some great city, touching in his 
faithful but limited way the lives of isolated and 
unrelated people. But the young man of real 
ability who gives his life to a great mission field 
like China, is one of a few factors shaping the 
destiny of large areas and millions of people. 
Comparatively, a man's influence is multiplied 
by at least one hundred out here. 

Such a man is Alexander Paul, of Wuhu, 
China. At home he would gradually come to be 
one of the leading pastors in a city like Lexing- 
ton or Columbus, but here he is an outstanding 
figure in a whole province. It is doubtful if 
there is a man in the whole province of Anwhei, 
Central China, who has the commanding influ- 
ence among the Chinese that this modest, hard- 
working man has attained. He has come to this 
most enviable position by giving himself to the 
real problems and needs of the people. Wuwei- 
chow district, lying north of the city of Wuhu, is 
one of the greatest rice-producing areas in China. 
i68 



BUSY WUHU BY THE YANGTSE. 

This district alone ships from Wuhu something 
like eight millions of bushels a year. The rice 
land is made fit for cultivation by the water 
which is led into it by canals from the Yangtse 
River when it is high. Owing to the breaking 
of the dykes, this water has been at once the 
curse as well as the salvation of the country. 
Often during years when the water was excep- 
tionally high the country has been flooded, the 
crops entirely destroyed, and famine has re- 
sulted. The dykes have been broken because of 
faulty and inadequate construction, and it has 
been impossible to correct this because of the 
graft and inefficiency of the officials who have 
been intrusted with funds for their repair. Mr. 
Paul has won the absolute confidence of the best 
officials of this district because of his integrity 
and unselfishness, and two years ago, when con- 
ditions became critical, the Famine Relief Com- 
mittee came to him and asked if he would not 
take the superintendency of dyke repairs and 
construction. About $40,000 was turned over to 
him and he organized a force of seven thousand 
men and put them to work. Nearly all of these 
men were enlisted from the district where the 
people suffered because of the floods, and their 
pay was sufficient food to keep them going while 
at work. So splendidly and economically did 
Mr. Paul carry on the work that the whole coun- 
try has resounded with his praise. The people 
have erected two large monuments to his honor, 
169 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

with tablets setting forth his service to the prov- 
ince. The officials have also presented him with 
gold medals as tokens of their gratitude. Since 
the dykes were built the crops have been very- 
fine, and the people call this missionary their 
benefactor. It is difficult to measure the benefit 
of this work to our missionary cause. It has 
made the best and most influential people 
throughout the district friends of the work. In 
the city of Wuweichow, one of the homes of 
Mr. Lou, whose family is the richest in this 
section of China, has been turned over for our 
out-station work there. Having the chapel work 
and other services in this leading home of the 
city has at once given our work standing in the 
community and made friends for us among the 
very best people in the city. Throughout the 
district Mr. Paul's work on the dykes has given 
our mission cause signal favor among the people. 
Mr. Paul never mentioned these things himself, 
and it was a revelation to us to talk with others 
about his work. 

This afternoon the members of the Wuhu 
Chamber of Commerce met in the reading room 
of our chapel, sipped tea, ate watermelon seeds 
and peanuts, while Mr. Doan talked to them of 
business conditions in America. It was very 
interesting to note the keen interest of these 
Chinese men in American conditions. The 
warmest friendship for our country is manifest 
everywhere out here. These men are all very 
170 



BUSY WUHU BY THE YANGTSE. 

much disturbed over the European war situation 
and are very suspicious of Japan's aggression 
against the Germans at Tsing Tao, North 
China. They fear Japan will use this oppor- 
tunity to retain a permanent hold on China 
territory. In this hour of trouble they are 
looking to America for sympathy and moral 
support. To-night I "lectured" to about four 
hundred men at the chapel on the European 
war. Never have I appreciated so much 
the value of American magazines as to-day 
when I went through a file of recent Outlooks 
to get ready for this address! The admission 
was by ticket, and a great company who were 
not provided with them were turned away from 
the doors. Many of the very best citizens of 
Wuhu were present, and the chairman of the 
meeting was a prominent business man who is 
the leading reformer in this section of China. 
He is a Confucianist, a brilliant scholar, and a 
very fine public speaker. For many years he 
has been fighting opium smoking, gambling, and 
graft. The audience was very attentive, and at 
the close of my address the chairman addressed 
the men with great earnestness for ten minutes. 
Mr. Paul states that ours is the only meeting 
place in the city where a gathering of any size 
may be held, and that a hall seating a thousand 
people could be filled any time a lecture or ad- 
dress should be announced. I took occasion in 
my talk to speak of Jesus the great Peacemaker. 
171 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

All services of this kind are made an entering 
wedge for the gospel. 

Wuhu, China, Stmday night, October nth. 

It is difficult to record the impressions of a 
day like this, so packed with things of intense 
interest. I strolled out for a couple of hours 
this afternoon, through the rice paddies and over 
the hills. There is no Sunday in China. Every- 
where I saw the people working. Men, women, 
and children were in the little fields hoeing, plow- 
ing with the quaint plows hitched to the caribou, 
digging with hoes, carrying huge buckets of fer- 
tilizer, mixing the same fertilizer in the ill-smell- 
ing brick-lined pits, cutting grass from the hill- 
sides for fuel, pulling water vines from the ponds 
for the same purpose, pumping water for irri- 
gation from the canals with the odd, elevator-like 
machines. I saw men wheeling great loads on 
their huge, squeaking wheelbarrows, and men 
and women carrying huge loads of straw, water, 
and grain on their shoulders, these same loads 
swinging from the ends of the inevitable bamboo 
poles. Toil, toil everywhere. The saying that 
you can go nowhere in China without seeing a 
Chinaman either living or dead is certainly true 
in this district. Half of the country seems to be 
uncultivated and dotted with grave mounds. 
Many of the bodies have not been buried at all, 
and the coffins, with the corpses inside, stand 
uncovered on the ground. I saw four of these 
172 



BUSY WUHU BY THE YANGTSE. 

great coffins standing in a row on a hill and 
around them several small, fragile boxes which 
had been used for children. Some of the bodies 
have not even been put in coffins and are cov- 
ered with bamboo matting. As I strolled through 
these old burying grounds, I had to watch care- 
fully lest I should stumble over the exposed 
skulls and human bones. In the midst of all 
this depressing lack of care for the dead, I saw 
people offering sacrifice and worshiping at the 
graves of their ancestors. And near by these 
worshipers was a detachment of modern Chinese 
soldiers carrying on a sham battle from behind 
the grave mounds. Surely China is a land of 
strange contradictions. Every little distance one 
finds a shrine dedicated to the earth god, with 
offerings and burning incense before it, to bring 
favor to the crops, and before the door to many 
of the houses is a high wall, supposed to keep out 
the evil spirits. This wall is built at a distance 
of several feet from the door, and is so con- 
structed that it extends several feet beyond the 
door on either side. When the Chinese are asked 
why the evil spirits do not go around the wall 
and thus enter the houses, the reply is made that 
they cannot turn a sharp corner. 

An impression which lingers constantly with 
one out here is the enormous number of people. 
It was Minister Wu who once said, "Three 
inches added to the length of each Chinese shirt 
would increase vastly to the wealth of American 

173 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

cotton growers," and when one considers the 
great population out here the significance of his 
remark is quite evident. 

To-day there have been a number of services. 
Professor Bower spoke to the students at our 
central chapel this morning and at the union 
foreign (English) service this afternoon. Mr. 
Doan addressed a special meeting in the city this 
afternoon, and I spoke at the union Chinese 
service in the Christian Alliance Chapel this 
morning and to-night at our central chapel on 
Africa. 

WuweichoWy China, October 13th, night. 

Yesterday we took the forty-mile steam- 
launch trip up a small river to this out-station, 
and to-day has been one of the busiest and most 
interesting days we have had. This is in the 
center of the region where Mr. Paul did the 
work on the dykes. He and Mr. and Mrs. Bow- 
man, of Wuhu, have accompanied us on this 
trip, and the day has been filled with incidents 
showing the warm friendship of the officials and 
leading people of this city. A Mr. Lou, one of 
the younger members of the wealthy family in 
this place which has shown such interest in Mr. 
Paul and our work, came all the way from 
Shanghai to accompany us to his home city and 
aid in making us welcome. Our mission work 
is at present cared for in the large city home 
of his brother. As I have mentioned before, 
174 



BUSY WUHU BY THE YANGTSE. 

this wealthy family fled to Shanghai for pro- 
tection during the revolutionary troubles, and 
have not dared to return home to live as yet. 

We arrived here about nine o'clock last night, 
and were met by members of our church carry- 
ing paper lanterns attached to poles. They con- 
ducted us along the narrow, dark streets, through 
the huge gate in the city walls, to the mission 
headquarters, where we have been staying. This 
is a typical wealthy Chinese home, built at great 
expense, but with few comforts. The money 
has been expended on high walls, many courts, 
wood carvings, and large, barn-like rooms. The 
floors are roughly laid, there are no ceilings, the 
windows are small grated openings in the walls, 
there is no provision for heating, no plumbing of 
any kind, and the partitions are made of large, 
adjustable frames elaborately filled with covered 
lattice, and the whole covered with semi-trans- 
parent paper. With the expense put into this 
one home an American could build half a dozen 
modern houses with all that makes a home com- 
fortable and convenient. However, this building 
makes excellent quarters for the mission work, 
and the occupancy of such a home gives excep- 
tional prestige to the work. 

With Mr. Paul and Mr. Bower we have vis- 
ited points of interest in this city of forty thou- 
sand to-day, besides calling at a number of the 
leading homes and upon the officials and chief 
elders of the city. Everywhere we have been 
175 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

received with the finest Chinese courtesy and 
great quantities of tea have been pressed upon 
us. No social or business call is possible with- 
out the drinking of tea. Fortunately, Chinese 
tea is not strong and quantities can be disposed 
of without any evident harm. 

I must mention just a few of the interesting 
things experienced to-day. The people have had 
good crops in this section and seem contented. 
The narrow business streets are crowded with 
baskets of rice, vegetables, and fish offered for 
sale. Facing one of these busy centers, a funeral 
service was being conducted, the whole front of 
the house having been removed and the coffin 
and family exposed to the gaze of all. A com- 
pany of Chinese musicians had been engaged for 
the occasion and were making various discordant 
noises with their cymbals, gongs, and one-stringed 
instruments. In another place a fire had oc- 
curred the night before and we saw the unfortu- 
nate victims huddled in the ruins, with temporary 
straw mats put up for a roof, because no one 
dare take them in. Not even relatives will shelter 
people whose homes have been burned until five 
days have passed, because of their fear of the 
so-called ''fire devils." 

We visited our street chapel, where services 
are held each night, and back of which a dis- 
pensary is conducted by one of our Chinese 
Christian doctors. For this place we pay five 
dollars a month rental. Wherever we stopped 
176 




Mother and dying babe at Luchowfu, China, hospital. She 
had carried the sick child many miles in the basket. 




Missionary preaching in Buddhist temple, Wuweichow, China. 



BUSY WUHU BY THE YANGTSE. 

a good-natured but curious crowd gathered to 
watch us. We visited a large Buddhist temple, 
and when a crowd gathered, Mr. Paul stood on 
the steps and, like Paul of old at Athens, compli- 
mented the people on their interest in religious 
things and preached the gospel to them. A few 
years ago to preach in such a place would have 
been very dangerous. 

In the afternoon Mr. Lou took us to the 
palace and gardens formerly occupied by his 
elder brother, and after showing us through this 
great estate, he had served for us an American 
meal of many courses in their old family dining 
room. This large place is surrounded by an im- 
mense wall and resembles very much a European 
king's castle of five hundred years ago. The 
buildings and grounds are now unoccupied, and 
there was much sadness in Mr. Lou's demeanor 
as he showed us through this wealthy and in- 
teresting home. 

This afternoon about three hundred men 
gathered in the large room used for our services 
in the Lou home, and Mr. Doan, Professor 
Bower, and I spoke to them, while Mr. Paul 
interpreted. The leading men of wealth, official 
position, and the scholars of the city were pres- 
ent. The audience was exceedingly attentive, 
and when Professor Bower spoke of the ideals 
of a true Republic, there was applause again and 
again. Ten years ago it would have been en- 
tirely impossible to get together an audience of 

177 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

this kind at a meeting in the interest of mis- 
sionary work — yes, even five years ago. Here- 
tofore the missionaries have found the higher 
class of Chinese stoHdly indifferent or bitterly 
hostile. To-day China is wide open for teaching 
and the church has access to the leaders, as well 
as the lowly people of the laboring class. 

Our experience to-night will long be remem- 
bered. Our wealthy friend, Mr. Lou, gave a real 
Chinese banquet in our behalf, having invited 
about a dozen of the leading scholars, officials, 
and business men of the city to meet us. A Chi- 
nese feast is a wonderful institution. Much of 
their food is exceedingly dainty and quite pal- 
atable. After one becomes accustomed to the 
peculiar Chinese flavors used, the food is greatly 
relished. It is necessary to attend a function of 
this kind to really appreciate Chinese courtesy, 
which in itself is worth study. When the feast 
is ready the host takes the greatest pains in seat- 
ing the guests according to their rank. As we 
sat at four different tables, this task was even 
more complicated than usual. The host, in plac- 
ing the guests, took a pair of chop-sticks and 
held them with both hands in front of his fore- 
head. Then with a low, sweeping bow towards 
the person next to be seated, he indicates what 
place is to be taken. When all have taken their 
places and while still standing, there is much 
bowing. In the meantime each watches the host 
in order to seat himself at exactly the right time. 

178 



BUSY WUHU BY THE YANGTSE. 

We had twenty-one courses, each served in a 
small bowl, and eighteen of these courses were 
meats. The Chinese way is to cut the meat into 
very fine pieces before cooking, and then to 
cover it with a gravy or stock, mixing with this 
a finely-cut vegetable. We ate with chop-sticks 
— that is, we did the best we could with them 
under the circumstances. We were furnished 
with a large chinaware spoon to drain our bowls 
of the broth when we had finished our meat. 
We found ourselves slyly using these spoons to 
negotiate the meat with when our chop-sticks 
proved unmanageable. We were each furnished 
with a teacup covered with the curious Chinese 
cup-top, which serves the purpose of keeping 
in the heat and at the same time holds the tea 
leaves in the cup while one is drinking. The 
waiters filled our cups with tea at the beginning 
of each course, and as the temptation came to 
both wash down the strangely flavored food with 
it and also to sip tea as a polite makeshift when 
we could not eat at all, one can easily imagine 
what a quantity we drank. As before stated, 
there were twenty-one courses, and we certainly 
averaged a cup to each course. It would have 
been impolite to have asked concerning the kind 
of food in each course, but from close observa- 
tion and conversation translated to us by the 
missionaries, we learned that the following com- 
prised some of the delicacies served : sharks' fins, 
sea slugs, chicken necks, duck tongues, fresh- 
179 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

water crabs, giblets, boiled chestnuts, kidneys, 
bits of pork, bamboo sprouts, bean sprouts, fish, 
shrimps, mussels, and chickens' intestines. The 
food was prepared in approved Chinese style and 
most of it was quite palatable. About two hours 
were consumed in the feast. There was a con- 
tinuous comment on the excellency of the food, 
and every time this occurred the host would 
partially rise from his chair, make a series of 
short nods or bows, and answer that there wasn't 
any food to speak of and what had been pro- 
vided was hardly fit to eat. The Chinese men 
were dressed in fine silk and satin gowns and 
jackets and wore the usual round silk skull-cap 
with the button at the top. The courtesy of 
these important Chinese men is very fine, and 
while a little ludicrous to an untutored Amer- 
ican, is really very genuine. Many topics of 
conversation were indulged in by the guests, one 
of the most common being America and her 
greatness, together with Chinese appreciation of 
what America has done for China. The warm 
friendship towards our country and our people 
is remarkable. 

The feast was held upstairs in our mission 
house, and it is a part of true Chinese courtesy 
to accompany the guests clear to the street when 
they leave. It is also necessary for the guest to 
stop at each stairway, door, hall, or gate and 
consume some time in trying to persuade his host 
to return. This particular house has at least half 
i8o 



BUSY WUHU BY THE YANGTSE. 

a dozen stopping places of this kind before one 
reaches the street entrance, and as we all had to 
make several trips with different guests, one can 
easily imagine how much time was consumed. 
Getting the guests away was almost as serious 
a problem as getting away with the twenty-one 
courses of Chinese food, and it was nearly mid- 
night before the bowing, pushing, and talking 
was over. 

Ten years ago the missionary had practically 
no access to the better class of Chinese. Their 
pride and conservatism kept them coldly aloof 
from the "foreign devil," as foreigners were then 
called. In fact, had it been otherwise, the mis- 
sionaries would have found it very difficult to 
have made friends with the official class and at 
the same time have kept the confidence of the 
common people. Now all is changed. The lead- 
ing men of the city were at this feast and in 
the mission house, too. Every home in the city 
is open to the missionaries, and there is not an 
official in the whole district who has the influ- 
ence which Mr. Paul has. The problem before 
the church to-day is not to find opportunities for 
service in China, but to take advantage of a few 
of the many presenting themselves. 

Our usual notion of the Chinese in America 
is very erroneous. One must come out here to 
really see them as they are. They are a wonder- 
ful people. Their customs are strange to us, 
but there is a strength and stability about them 
i8i 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

which marks them as the great nation of the 
East. No other nation of the world has existed 
for four thousand years as has China. The other 
great civihzations of the world have risen to 
fame and then decayed and passed into history. 
China has kept right on through the centuries, 
her unity unbroken, her race intact, her charac- 
teristics unchanged, her patience and industry 
increasing with the years. Let this wonderful 
people become inspired and uplifted by the power 
of Christianity, and only God can measure 
China's future place in the world's history. 

Luchowfu, China, October 15th. 

We left Wuweichow three days ago on three 
small houseboats. We had bedding with us and 
slept quite comfortably through the night, while 
our boatmen poled and paddled us down the 
canal to the junction with the river leading out 
of Chow Lake. At the junction we took the 
daily steam launch and came in two half days 
and a night to this place. Our night on the 
launch was spent in little cabins with our bed- 
ding arranged on board shelves about four and 
a half feet long. By curling up we managed 
to get a fairly good night's rest. 

Luchowfu is one of our best China stations. 
It is a city of seventy-five thousand, in a district 
of fully a million and a half. We have a large 
hospital here, made famous in this whole region 
by Dr. Butchart's service of fifteen years. Dr. 
182 



BUSY WUHU BY THE YANGTSE. 

Wakefield now has charge of the hospital, and 
besides his family, there are Justin E. Brown 
and wife, engaged in the city evangelistic work; 
George Baird and wife, in charge of the hospital 
and country evangelistic work; Mr. and Mrs. 
Buck, looking after the boys' school and Sunday- 
school work, and Miss Vautrin, in charge of the 
girls' school and women's work. The Christian 
Women's Board of Missions has bought an ex- 
cellent piece of land within the city walls and 
will soon build a building, take over our girls' 
school work, and establish a large girls' boarding 
school here. It is hard to imagine a place more 
strategic than Luchowfu for the work they are 
undertaking. 

Miss Minnie Vautrin, of the University of 
Illinois, is living alone in the heart of this city, 
as does Miss Miller in Wuhu. Miss Vautrin 
is only in her second year in China and is still 
struggling with the language. In spite of this 
she has on her hands enough work to overburden 
two women. Miss Alma Favors, who has devel- 
oped the women's work here in such a remark- 
able way, is now home on furlough, and on her 
return she is to marry Mr. C. H. Plopper and 
go to the needy field of Nantungchow. Miss 
Vautrin is undaunted and enthusiastic in the 
midst of this great Chinese population. She 
lives in a cozy little home, which is a Chinese 
house remodeled, with her school girls and the 
Chinese women she is training all about her. She 

183 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS 

is not only carrying on the school work, but also 
the women's evangelistic work, in which her two 
Chinese Bible women assist her. When the 
Women's Board inaugurates the girls' school 
here, they will take over the one now carried on 
by Miss Vautrin, but then there will be left more 
than one woman's task in the city evangelistic 
work among women and the Bible training school 
for women which Miss Vautrin hopes to con- 
duct. We should have another woman to do 
country evangelistic work who could live with 
Miss Vautrin. No single woman should be com- 
pelled to live alone in the mission field. Miss 
Vautrin and our other ladies in Luchowfu have 
access to the best homes of the city. We are 
soon to have an evangelistic campaign in our 
new church here, and in preparation for it Miss 
Vautrin recently invited to her home four of the- 
wives of the officials of the city. From them 
she secured a long list of the names of prominent 
ladies to be invited to a home meeting. Such 
a thing was absolutely impossible two or three 
years ago. No greater evidence of the marvel- 
ous opportunity before the church in China is 
apparent than the new accessibility of the women 
— for the women in any mission field are the 
last to be reached. Especially is this true in 
China, where for centuries they have been sup- 
posed to need no education or touch with the 
outside world. 



184 



XVI. 
Last Days With the Workers. 

Luchowfu, October idth. 

The notes on this station will, I fear, be very 
brief, for our time is taken through the day and 
far into the night with study of the work, con- 
ferences and wrestling with problems concerning 
plans for the future. If one only had a month 
to really study this city and the work in it, he 
could sit down with some degree of satisfaction 
and write something that might be worth while. 
As it is, a few jottings and impressions is all 
that can be put down. 

The hospital work gets hold of one's sym- 
pathies quickly, because the ministry of the med- 
ical missionary is so evidently helpful and you 
can see the results of his work at at glance. Our 
Luchowfu hospital is the largest we have in the 
world, and here are treated annually about thirty 
thousand patients. At certain times during the 
day streams of people can be seen coming and 
going. Dr. Butchart toiled here for seventeen 
years and did a remarkable piece of work. He 
built the hospital and has made its influence felt 
for scores of miles in every direction. Probably 
nearly every family in the city and the immedi- 
i8S 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

ate region has been at some time influenced by 
this Christian heahng plant. Now that Dr. 
Butchart has gone to the medical department 
of the University of Nanking, Dr. Paul Wake- 
field is in charge. He is an exceedingly busy 
man. We went through the hospital this morn- 
ing, and the importance of the work grew on us 
as we studied it. There is an ordinary clinic 
and a surgical clinic each morning. The doctor 
has two regular trained Chinese assistants and 
eight students who are studying under him who 
also assist. A hospital in America, attempting 
any large work like this, would have at least a 
dozen highly trained physicians and surgeons. 
After watching for a moment the group of 
patients waiting their turn for examination and 
medicine, we passed into a small reading room, 
where Dr. Wakefield gave his morning lecture 
to the students. After he had finished, the Chi- 
nese hospital evangelist gave them a study in 
Luke. Then there was prayer together, and with 
this preparation for the day's work, each man 
went to his task. Each of these students gladly 
pays his own way through the hospital course. 
The mission simply furnishes some plain, mud- 
wall houses in which the students live. China 
has practically no doctors of her own as yet, and 
these young men, who take a six years' course 
in the hospital, are in great demand in the smaller 
cities throughout China. They are all Christian 
men and some of them will be able to do fine 
i86 



LAST DAYS WITH THE WORKERS. 

service at our out-stations in connection with the 
missionary work. For some years to come med- 
ical graduates like those from Nanking Univer- 
sity and other Christian schools will all be used 
in Government service, so that hospital internes 
like these with their practical training will have 
to take the work of Christian practitioners. 

In the middle of the hospital building is the 
chapel, around which everything centers. Here 
services are held for the patients each morning, 
this work being followed up by the evangelist 
and Bible woman. 

One can judge something of the volume of 
the work by the fact that the hospital uses a 
barrel of vaseline every six weeks, and six hun- 
dred ounces of quinine during a year. One hun- 
dred gallons of alcohol lasts fourteen months, 
and each year fifty pounds of potassium iodide 
are consumed. 

The poor patients who come to the hospital 
are charged only a nominal fee, but those who 
receive surgical treatment or who are in-patients 
with regular treatment, are charged according to 
their ability to pay. 

One of the pitiful cases of the morning was 
that of a desperately sick little babe that had 
been carried by its mother seven miles to the 
doctor. She came through the hospital com- 
pound with the suffering child in a basket sus- 
pended from a bamboo pole which rested across 
her shoulders, with another basket at the other 

187 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

end to balance the burden. While the doctor 
was examining this child, a father and mother 
came bearing on a bamboo stretcher two of their 
children who had been horribly burned through 
an accident with scalding water. Large portions 
of their bodies were dreadfully burned and blis- 
tered, and one of the children was dying. There 
were at least fifty patients in the yard waiting 
their turn while we were observing these two 
cases. 

Luchozvfu, Sunday, October i8th. 

China has always honored education, and al- 
though her old system was conservative and had 
only to do with herself and her own classics, yet 
this educational background of so many centuries 
makes her people keen for the new education, 
now that she has turned her face towards it. 

Mr. and Mrs. Buck are carrying on the boys' 
school work in the city. They have a fine school 
in an old temple, which has been turned over to 
them at a very moderate rental — in fact, the 
officials were willing to grant it free of rent, but 
our missionaries thought it better to pay a nom- 
inal rent for it. The worship of the temple is 
now confined to a dirty little shrine in one end 
of the structure. This kind of religion does not 
seem able to withstand modern learning. Here 
in this ancient temple of idolatry Mr. Buck has 
as fine a group of forty boys as one could wish 
to see. They are under Christian teachers and 
i88 



LAST DAYS WITH THE WORKERS. 

present a stirring evangelistic opportunity. Mr. 
Buck is in close touch with them, and through 
his warm friendship with the teachers in the 
Government city schools, he has a good hold on 
the boy life of the city. He and his wife have 
some fine plans for their future work in the city, 
with the Sunday-school in our new church build- 
ing as the center of influence. Luchowfu is an 
exceptional city in the development of its own 
schools, and Mr. and Mrs. Buck are enthusiastic 
over the outlook for the future. There is no 
finer avenue of service than this rare opening 
among the boys of an important city like this. 
Mr. Buck plans to reach the boys and young 
men of the city through a number of outposts 
for schools and night classes. 

In the afternoon yesterday we had a good 
conference with our China workers, who opened 
up their hearts to us concerning their hopes and 
longings for the future of the work. Last night 
Professor Bower spoke to practically every stu- 
dent in the city at the hospital chapel. Mr. Buck 
had given out invitations through the teachers 
in the city schools, and the pupils turned out in 
delegations from each part of the city. They 
packed the chapel, the porch outside, and over- 
flowed into the hospital yard. For an hour they 
listened intently to the professor as he brought 
them a ringing message concerning Christianity 
as the basis of complete learning. Everywhere 
the students of China are eager for a message. 
189 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

They hunger for that which will give them new 
light, and Christianity has the chance of a cen- 
tury out here. 

The hospital chapel was packed with a large 
crowd this morning, with Justin Brown, our 
evangelistic missionary, in charge. It was 
planned to dedicate our new church building in 
the center of the city to-day, but the builders 
could not get it finished in time. The new 
building is the best church building we have in 
any mission field and is costing about $4,000. 
It would cost several times that at home. Miss 
Myrtle Warren and her mother, of Nebraska, 
have provided the money for this fine building. 
It would be difficult to imagine an investment 
for Christ that would count for more than this. 
This church building will become the religious 
center for the work among nearly two million 
people. Mr. Brown is planning large things 
for the future of this church, and the outlook 
is very hopeful indeed. The building is of brick, 
with a good auditorium and several separate 
rooms. It is well located in the heart of this 
great Chinese population. Mr. Brown expects 
to make this church a radiating center for work 
all over the city, and is planning a strong evan- 
gelistic meeting with visiting forces immediately 
following dedication. Shi Gwei Biao, our vet- 
eran evangelist from Chuchow, is already here 
to aid in this work. We have a good member- 
ship of Chinese here, with a g'^od Chinese pastor. 
190 



LAST DAYS WITH THE WORKERS. 

Mr. Brown tells us that an important railroad 
has already been surveyed which will pass 
through Luchowfu, and that this city will have 
the shops and division center. He has large 
plans for the development of the work. The 
plan is to have four other points for preaching 
places in the city besides the present church, and 
also to open eight additional out-stations in the 
district where there are now but two. Mr. and 
Mrs. George Baird, who are now home on fur- 
lough, will do much toward the development of 
these plans. 

Mr. Brown tells us that when the work first 
opened here, Dr. Butchart did not dare operate 
where he could not be seen, because of the super- 
stition of the people. He was obliged to operate 
before an open window so that the crowd could 
see that he used no strange or "devilish" power 
over his patients. A death in the hospital was a 
dangerous thing in those days. Now people of 
influence entrust themselves to the doctor's in- 
struments and so great is their confidence that 
no question is raised if a patient dies during 
operation. 

Chinese steamer, crossing Chow Lake, October 

ipth. 

We are taking this thirty-mile journey on a 

small Chinese steamer, and these notes are being 

written on a little table on the stern of the boat 

with Chinese crowded all about. Fully a dozen 

191 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

are watching me write with the keenest curiosity. 
Everything the "foreigner" does seems to be of 
rare interest to them. They are good-natured, 
alert people, anxious to see everything the stran- 
ger has, and have been examining my camera 
with much curiosity. The greatest interest was 
manifested in our disposal of lunch a little while 
ago. We are probably far more interesting to 
them in our eating than they are to us, and their 
manner of disposing of their food is far from 
lacking in novelty. As we opened our can of 
corned beef, cut our loaf of bread, spread butter 
upon it, and prepared our sandwiches, they 
watched with open-mouthed curiosity, and when 
we began to bite off rather large pieces of the 
same and eat it with relish, they started a chatter 
of discussion which indicated that we were most 
unusual in our manner of eating. I imagine 
if we could have understood them, their con- 
versation would have been something as follows : 
"These foreigners are very strange fellows; no- 
tice the uncivilized way of eating. They do not 
seem to know what rice it, but cut off large 
pieces of that dry, white substance and spread 
a yellow grease all over it. Then, see them eat 
meat! Instead of having it cut and cooked in 
very small pieces which they might mix with 
their rice, they have a great chunk of it, which 
looks stringy and greasy, sealed up in a stuffy 
tin can. See with what they eat! Instead of 
using slender, neat chop-sticks, they use large 
192 











ii^^M i^^rt^B 



^^m 




Temple of Heaven, Pekin, China. New railroad station, 
Pukow, China. Guardian images near Ming Tombs, Nankin, 
China. 



LAST DAYS WITH THE WORKERS. 

knives and prongs, with which they tear and 
slash their meat Hke butchers at the market. 
Instead of eating from bowls like civilized folks, 
they take great pieces of food in their fingers 
and bite and tear at them. They drink tea, but 
spoil it by diluting it with a white-looking fluid 
which it sickens one to look at, and, not satisfied 
with that, they stir into it a sweet, sickish sub- 
stance they call sugar." 

This is a small boat, about fifty feet long, 
but there must be several hundred passengers 
on it. They are packed on in every conceivable 
way. There are at least a dozen of them within 
easy reach of my hand as I write. Directly in 
front of me a country woman is squatting on 
the floor sound asleep. Near her another woman 
also sitting on the floor, holding two children. 
Packed about these two, too thick to squat down, 
are a crowd of men and boys, busily chattering 
away about the "foreigner" and his writing. 
Along the center of the boat are the little, 
crowded, board cabins with the top about three 
feet from the canvas roof. In this narrow, top 
space are crowded, like sardines in a box, men, 
women, and children. On the hard boards, with 
not a pillow or quilt to soften their repose, they 
curl up and sleep without concern. 

Wuhu, China, October 2 2d. 

We are back again at Wuhu, and held here 
a couple of days because Mrs. Doan has con- 

13 193 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

tracted some malaria, and the writer is suffering 
from a deep cold. We crossed Chow Lake in 
the crowded launch without difficulty and were 
picked up at Chao Hsien by a Standard Oil 
launch, which Mr. Bowman, of Wuhu, had 
brought up to meet us. In this boat we made 
our way down the small stream to the Yangtse 
River a few miles above Wuhu. The wind was 
too rough to risk crossing, so we anchored, made 
up improvised beds on the launch, and slept as 
best we could until morning. An interesting 
thing occurred in the morning as we were com- 
ing down the Yangtse. At this time we met a 
group of men paddling down the river in tubs, 
driving a flock of about a thousand domestic 
ducks before them. We were told that these 
great flocks of ducks are often made to swim 
in this way a distance of fifty or one hundred 
miles. Each man as he sat in his oblong tub 
propelled himself with little paddles in either 
hand. The reason for using the tubs seems to 
be that they are easily guided and can be much 
more quickly turned in pursuit of the ducks than 
can a boat. 

Chuchow, China, October 2pth. 

A week has passed without opportunity to 
write a line in this notebook. From Wuhu we 
went by river steamer and rail to Shanghai, stop- 
ping an evening on the way for conference with 
the University of Nanking faculty. We spent 
194 



LAST DAYS WITH THE WORKERS. 

an interesting Sunday at Shanghai, in our two 
churches there and in conference with the mis- 
sionaries, and then back by train to Chuchow. 
We have chosen Chuchow for our final confer- 
ence because it is quiet and isolated, and here 
there would be fewer distractions or interrup- 
tions. Here we have been having our final con- 
ference with the China Advisory Committee of 
our mission before starting for Japan by the way 
of North China and Korea. Each mission of 
the Foreign Society is organized on the field and 
administers its own work through an annual con- 
vention and an advisory committee, which has 
administrative powers between conventions. 
These have been busy days and nights as we 
have planned together for the future of our 
work in China. In the beginning of a mission 
the plans must largely take shape from indi- 
vidual initiative, as openings occur, but as the 
work develops and a group of stations are formed 
with their varied types of service, the whole 
mission must conduct its enterprises according 
to a unified policy. There must be care taken 
that the different kinds of work are properly 
balanced and that a program of development 
and advance be carefully carried out. It has 
been very cheering indeed to see how our China 
mission is working out a well-defined plan for 
future development, and how well balanced are 
the different phases of work. There is no place 
in the world where teamwork is more essential 

195 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

to success than in the mission field. The for- 
eign missionary task is too large and compli- 
cated, and requires too much real statesmanship, 
to be left to individual initiative and guidance. 
Where such is the case you have a series of in- 
dependent units built up by different person- 
alities and the unity which is so necessary for 
a strong, lasting, and full-rounded work is lack- 
ing. 

We have dealt with many problems during 
these busy days and nights. We might have 
taken this journey to the fields and have seen 
only the bright and encouraging side of the mis- 
sion work. This would have been very nice and 
comforting, but not fraught with most helpful- 
ness for either the work or ourselves. We came 
to the fields to enter as fully as possible into 
the burdens as well as the joys of the work. 
Only thus have we felt that we could be really 
sympathetic. We realize full well that in a 
brief stay like this we cannot come to anything 
like a full understanding of the work or its prob- 
lems. Missionaries who have spent a lifetime 
among these Oriental peoples are not always 
sure of their ground. We feel, however, that 
we have gained much in appreciation and sym- 
pathy, and that the frank, open confidences of 
the workers, together with the advantage of com- 
ing in from the outside and seeing things in the 
large, has helped us to form something approach- 
ing a true perspective of the mission situation. 
196 



XVII. 

Where the War Reaches China. 

Tsinanfu, China, November ist. 

We feel more as though a war was going 
on in the world to-day than we have before, 
because the Germans and the Japanese are fight- 
ing only a few hours' journey from here at Tsing 
Tau, and the German railroad from here to that 
point is in the hands of the Japanese. However, 
everything is quiet here, and the only outward 
evidence of the conditions existing is the pres- 
ence of Japanese troups guarding the railroad 
property. 

We left our station at Chuchow yesterday 
morning and traveled over the new Nanking- 
Tsientsin-Pekin Railroad to this place, arriving 
here at six this morning. There are few better 
roads in America than this modern line. Parts 
of the road are less than two years old. It is a 
rock ballast, heavy standard rail, Chinese owned, 
and German constructed road, cutting its way 
on almost a straight line through the hills and 
plains and farms and graveyards, as well as the 
customs and superstitions, of old China. We 
197 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

rode on a good sleeper last night, and ate our 
meals in an up-to-date dining car. Less than 
fifteen years ago the Chinese tore up the first 
railroad constructed in China, near Shanghai, 
and threw it into the river, fearing that the snort- 
ing engine, the thundering train, and the earth- 
disturbing cuts would anger the great earth 
dragon and cause China's destruction. Yester- 
day one of the German engineers who con- 
structed the road, together with his wife, rode 
with us, and at every important station he was 
accorded an ovation by crowds of railroad work- 
men and local Chinese, while they exploded 
bushels of firecrackers in his honor. China is 
indeed changing! 

We have stopped here to visit one of the 
strong mission cities of China. There is a popu- 
lation of about 300,000 in the city, and the mis- 
sionary force consists of the Presbyterians and 
the English Baptists, who are cooperating to- 
gether in a very fine way. This is a union uni- 
versity center for these two bodies, where an 
educational work similiar to that in Nanking 
will soon be carried on. The medical part of 
the school is already under way, and soon the 
other departments will be moved here from other 
centers in this part of China, where they have 
been built up as separate institutions. The Bap- 
tists and Presbyterians have also entered into a 
very interesting experimental union in their 
church work here. They have five different 
198 



WHERE THE WAR REACHES CHINA. 

preaching centers in the city where the member- 
ship is both Presbyterian and Baptist, each com- 
munion carrying out its own desires in regard 
to the ordinances in each place. 

Until about fifteen years ago the opposition 
was most bitter, the missionaries often being in 
very grave peril of their lives. For many years 
the women of the mission did not dare appear 
on the streets. Since the Boxer troubles the 
work has grown very rapidly and there are few 
more successful missions in China. 

Our own work has impressed us very favor- 
ably as we have compared it with that of other 
boards, although ours is much newer. These 
older missions, like the Congregationalists, Pres- 
byterians, London Missionary Society, English 
and American Baptists, and the great China In- 
land Mission, have pioneered the way, and to 
them is due great credit in the opening up of 
China to Christianity. The methods of work 
of the different boards are very similar out here. 
The field is so large that there is no overlapping, 
and the work is so colossal that differences are 
largely lost sight of. The necessity of present- 
ing Christ in the simplest and most direct fashion, 
together with the folly of making known the 
theological and formal differences of the West 
to people who are absolutely ignorant of God, 
makes the progress of unity very encouraging in 
China. 

There is a very strange tradition concern- 
199 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

ing this city. Near at hand is a great, sacred 
mountain with temples up the side and a great 
pagoda at the top. It is supposed that the city 
floats in the water and an unseen anchor-chain 
extends from the top of the mountain to the land 
on which the city is built, thus keeping it from 
destruction. The terrible Yellow River is near, 
and because of its devastation during times of 
flood, this superstition concerning the anchoring 
of the city has grown up. Because of the rav- 
ages of this river, much of this province is often 
flooded and terrible famines ensue. 

There are about twenty-five missionaries of 
both boards here. There are two men's hospitals 
and a medical school, a woman's hospital, a boys' 
and a girls' high school, a training school for 
teachers, a womens' Bible training school and 
one for the men. One of the strongest fea- 
tures of this work is the provision for training 
of leading Christians and workers for the whole 
district. These people come in from the scat- 
tered churches in large numbers and stay for 
weeks while they receive daily Bible training and 
also training in the regular work of the church. 
The missions provide dormitories for sleeping, 
but the Christians themselves pay their board 
and all other expenses. Quite a large degree of 
self-support has been developed in this district. 
The churches in the out-stations provide their 
own buildings, and the primary schools, which 
are carried on at all such points, have the build- 

200 



WHERE THE WAR REACHES CHINA. 

ing and one half the teacher's salary provided 
by the local people. 

One of the great missionary agencies of this 
city is a museum conducted by one of the English 
Baptist missionaries. The building cost $20,000, 
and was donated by friends in England. It is 
one of the best moderate-sized museums I have 
ever seen. Its exhibits have to do with natural 
history, manufactures, art, etomology, modern 
transportation, architecture, and a number of 
other subjects. From the entrance to the exit 
of this remarkable building one is face to face 
with what Christian civilization has contributed 
to the world's progress. Such an institution in 
the heart of China is a great marvel to the Chi- 
nese. The admittance is free and the visitors 
often number from two to five thousand a day. 
In the center of the building is a neat chapel, 
and in this almost every hour of the day while 
the museum is open, some one preaches the gos- 
pel to the visitors. This institution has done 
wonderful service in making hundreds of thou- 
sands of people for the first time acquainted with 
Christianity. 

The missionaries in Tsinanfu have accorded 
us every courtesy, took great pains in showing 
us the work, and have made us feel quite as 
much at home as our own people could have 
done. We shall long remember the pleasant and 
profitable day spent with these earnest and effi- 
cient workers. 

201 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

Alexander Paul, of Wuhu, and Dr. Osgood, 
of Chuchow, accompanied us here. Dr. Osgood 
will return home after a few days, but Alexander 
Paul, who is chairman of our China Advisory 
Committee, will accompany us to Pekin and help 
us in visiting the missionary work and studying 
conditions in that great city. It has been a great 
delight to have these two members of our mis- 
sion with us. Seeing China through their eyes 
is a remarkable help, and the fellowship has been 
very sweet. Aside from this, our helplessness 
in travel would have been far more acute if we 
had not had these good men along who can speak 
Chinese and who understand things Chinese. 

It is very interesting to compare the bitter 
opposition offered the early missionaries with the 
welcome received everywhere now. As one of 
the older missionaries expressed himself: "We 
were mobbed in the cities, mobbed in the coun- 
try, mobbed in the towns. We got so used to 
being pelted with mud and gravel and bits of 
pottery that things seemed strange if we escaped 
the regular dose. There was nothing else to 
do but keep at it. Driven out of one place, we 
betook ourselves to another, according to instruc- 
tions. We did not leave the country, as the lit- 
erati desired, and we did not intend to. We 
wore them out as an anvil sometimes wears out 
a hammer." 



202 



XVIII. 
In Quaint Pekin. 

Pekin, November 4th. 

It seems presumptuous to attempt to see a 
great, interesting city like this in two days, and 
still more presumptuous to attempt to write down 
impressions of it received during so brief a 
period. One ought to have at least ten days to 
really see things here. Pekin is one of the most 
interesting cities in the world and as different 
from Canton, in South China, as New York is 
different from London. Canton has streets about 
eight feet wide while those in Pekin are very 
broad. There the burdens are carried on men's 
backs, and people in sedan chairs, but in Pekin 
everything rides in the ever-present Pekin cart. 
Canton is ever tropical, while here we find our- 
selves shivering in the cold. In the former city 
the clothing is thin, the majority of those who 
toil go without shirts, and protection from the 
sun is secured by the wide bamboo hat. Here 
the people wear "layer" upon layer of padded 
cotton clothing, and the heads are covered with 
fur caps and warm ear-laps. In Canton the 
women, rich and poor alike, wear their hair plas- 
tered tight to the scalp and in a braid down the 
203 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

back. Here there are thousands of Manchu 
women and they do up their hair in the most 
striking way not even approached by the in- 
genious coiffeur of the West. The people are 
rather short in South China, but up here the men 
are tall and stalwart. 

We have followed the policy of seeing a few 
typical things rather than trying to take in too 
much. The distances are very great here ; there 
are no street cars, and without conveyances one 
can make little progress. 

Yesterday we went first to the Altar of 
Heaven and the Temple of Heaven, both outside 
the city, where for centuries the emperors have 
worshiped for the people at stated periods. The 
temple is a remarkable building, both in its archi- 
tecture and colorings, and stands out as one of 
the world's distinctive pieces of architecture. 
The lines are modest -and simple, and the build- 
ing well preserved, although no longer used for 
worship. The interior has been recently used 
as an assembly room for the shaping of the Chi- 
nese national Constitution, and part of the spa- 
cious grounds is used for an agricultural experi- 
ment station. The great Altar of Heaven, where 
the emperors formerly worshiped in magnificent 
state, is now neglected, the marble approaches 
disintegrating, and the plot of ground on which 
it is located overgrown with rank weeds. 

After visiting the Temple of Heaven, we 
went to one of the large imperial palaces within 
204 



IN QUAINT PEKIN. 

the city. This great building is now occupied 
by a boys' college, in which a friend of Mr. Paul's 
is teaching. This friend accompanied us through 
the city and aided much in making our visit 
pleasant and profitable. In this college, occupy- 
ing what was once a building sacred to the im- 
perial family, the students are now ardently 
studying English, German, and French, as well 
as the general branches of Western learning. 
Next we visited the imperial botanical gar- 
den and the empress dowager's summer palace 
within it. Now that the old empress is dead 
and the Republican regime has taken the place 
of her government, the place is simply preserved 
as a relic of the past. The palace represents the 
old ruler's desire for Western things, and the 
building is of red brick and looks very much 
like a small girls' school dormitory that would 
have been erected in America twenty-five years 
ago. The effect is far from as impressive as it 
would be if she had constructed the building 
according to Chinese lines of architecture. This 
strange looking, foreign building is quite incon- 
gruous in the midst of this great Oriental city. 
The old ruler was very fond of Western things 
for herself, although she long opposed Western 
civilization for her people. The house is fur- 
nished largely with Western furniture as she 
used it. One of the most prominent things is a 
set of mirrors such as we see in a dime museum 
at home, one concave and the other convex, made 
205 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

to distort the reflection of the people standing 
before them. The story goes that the empress 
dowager was very proud of these two glasses. 

Most of the furniture is of American make, 
the bedsteads being of brass. The guide stated 
that all of the furnishings had been made in ac- 
cord with the empress dowager's express order. 
This strange and seclusive old ruler would cer- 
tainly have been very unhappy had she thought 
that after she was gone, her summer villa would 
become a museum visited by bands of hated for- 
eigners, who would laugh before her comic mir- 
rors and comment on the cost and style of her 
private bedroom set. 

During the afternoon we visited the famous 
summer palace outside the city and some eight 
miles distant. This palace or series of palaces, 
with the accompanying temples on the side of a 
beautiful mountain, affords one of the wonderful 
sights of the world. Here we found an elaborate 
series of buildings of great cost, in true Chinese 
style of architecture. This finely preserved 
group of imperial Oriental buildings left a 
marked impression upon us. The buildings are 
constructed on a series of terraces up the steep 
mountain side, with the two great temples near 
the summit. The roofs are of beautiful golden, 
blue, and green tile, and as one stands at the top 
and looks down over the remarkable series of 
buildings and then out over the pretty imperial 
lake with its exquisite islands and quaint bridges, 
206 



IN QUAINT PEKIN. 

he can only think of a fairyland picture. We 
have seen no buildings in the East which have 
made such an impression on us as this summer 
palace. Two unique features are a small temple 
constructed entirely of carved copper, high on 
the mountain side, and a large, marble summer- 
house in the edge of the lake, constructed in the 
form of a large boat. One would need a great 
deal of time and space to properly describe this 
most interesting place of the departed rulers of 
China. 

To-day we have devoted our time to visiting 
mission work in the city, and just before dusk we 
went to two of the famous temples. 

The Methodists have a very strong mission 
here which is the center for a large district 
which they work from Pekin. They have thirty 
missionaries, all living in one group where their 
university and its various departments is located. 
This mission center was entirely destroyed dur- 
ing the Boxer troubles thirteen years ago, the 
furious Chinese even going so far as to dig up 
the foundations of the buildings and scatter the 
stones far and near. The missionaries from this 
work all escaped to the legations in the city and 
were protected until the allied troops entered 
the walls of Pekin and rescued them. Indemnity 
was paid for these buildings, which enabled the 
mission to rebuild their whole compound in uni- 
form style, which has given them the best group 
of mission homes and school buildings we have 
207 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

seen in the East. The Pekin University, as their 
school is called, has in its preparatory schools, 
girls' school, and all departments, about twelve 
hundred students. We were able to visit the 
chapel exercises of the boys' school, go through 
the girls' school, and visit some of the dormi- 
tories and other buildings. The central Chinese 
church at this center will seat about one thou- 
sand, and is well filled at services. There have 
been about two hundred added to the church 
during the last year. 

Later we visited the Y. M. C. A., which is 
one of the best associations in the Far East. 
There are thirteen hundred members housed in 
a fine $75,000 building, the gift of John Wanna- 
maker, of Philadelphia. The building has every 
equipment found in an American Association 
building. All departments are very popular with 
the Chinese. There are over six hundred in the 
day and night schools in the building, and this 
entire educational work is supported by a Chinese 
business man, who contributes $4,000 a year for 
this purpose. This same man has recently bought 
five thousand Chinese Bibles, which he has dis- 
tributed among the students and business men 
of the city. He is now erecting stone tablets, 
twenty feet high, in various parts of the city, on 
which leading Scripture texts are engraved. 
Strange to say, this man is not a church member 
as yet, but states that he is studying Christianity 
and is convinced of its truth. The whole sup- 
208 




Korean mourning hat. Korean women. Korean house in 
which a church meets. 



IN QUAINT PEKIN. 

port of this large Y. M. C. A. is provided by 
the Chinese of the city except the salary of the 
American who acts as head secretary. President 
Yuan Shi Kai himself contributes $5,ooo a year 
towards the work. Several of the leading Chi- 
nese officials of the city likewise give generously 
to the work. 

George Sherwood Eddy, Y. M. C. A. secre- 
tary for Asia, is in a great evangelistic campaign 
in China and has been in Pekin very recently. 
His meeting here had the support of the chief 
officials and the President himself. Mr. Eddy 
was granted a large building for the meeting, 
inside the old Forbidden City, which has been 
the secluded residence quarters of the emperors 
for centuries and within which the President now 
resides. The attendance at these meetings 
ranged from two thousand to four thousand a 
night, largely students. At the last service there 
were twenty-five hundred, and one thousand of 
them signed cards expressing their desire to join 
Bible classes for the further study of Chris- 
tianity. These results in the old conservative 
city of Pekin certainly forecast great things for 
Christian work in China. 

We also visited to-day the Union Medical 
College, which is participated in by four mission 
boards, has a Faculty of twelve foreign phy- 
sicians and one hundred and forty Christian stu- 
dents. One of the buildings for the medical 
college was erected by the Chinese Government. 

^* 209 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

Late this afternoon we visited two of the 
famous temples of Pekin. The first was what 
is called the Llama Temple. It was erected by 
a company of Tibetan Buddhist priests who came 
to Pekin to propagate their religion two hundred 
and fifty years ago. There are seven hundred 
priests and students for the priesthood in this 
great temple compound. We found them at their 
prayers in the various parts of the temple. With 
shaven heads and dressed in dirty, yellow robes, 
they were sitting upon their heels chanting their 
monotonous prayer. We can never forget the 
pathetic, almost uncanny drone of their chanted 
formula, as they sat for an hour, with expres- 
sionless faces, their candles burning in front of 
them. Their prayer consisted of a few words 
only, and the supposed efficacy of it seemed to 
be in the number of times it was repeated. A 
couple of the older priests, their yellow robes 
very greasy and patched, took us through the 
various courts and buildings of the temple. The 
huge wooden doors which formed the entrance 
to each part were all fastened with wooden bars, 
but behind each stood an expectant priest who 
swung the doors open for us upon the promise 
of a few pennies. All of the furnishings of the 
temple seem to have been brought from Tibet. 
Many of these are very rich and expensive. In 
the central building we found a huge, gold-cov- 
ered image of Buddha, seventy-five feet high. 

210 



IN QUAINT PEKIN. 

The last place we visited was the great Con- 
fucian temple, one of the most noted places of 
worship in China. The grounds are spacious, 
studded with trees of a very great age, some being 
reckoned at over five hundred years. There is 
one central temple where the Chinese emperors 
have worshiped the spirit of Confucius for cen- 
turies and where President Yuan Shi Kai him- 
self recently paid homage. This central temple 
is surrounded by a number of lesser ones con- 
taining certain relics which are held to be sacred. 
In an alcove of the central temple is a pile of 
wooden boxes which, according to the statement 
of the temple priest, contains the original manu- 
scripts of the Confucian classics. This room was 
very dusty and the boxes old and in bad repair. 
Dusk was coming on and we were not able to 
see the interior of these temples satisfactorily. 
There were no lights, and the doors were the 
only means of illumination. The temples seemed 
to be very simple in their finishings. The build- 
ings were of wood, with the characteristic 
Chinese architecture, many carved ornamental 
timbers, and the curved Chinese roof covered 
with ornamental tile. 

From what we can learn, the President of 
China is not an avowed Confucianist, but an 
atheist. He seems to feel that China has turned 
so rapidly from her old religion that she is in 
danger of moral disintegration unless this de- 

211 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

parture is checked. For this reason he is en- 
couraging the revival of Confucianism and at 
the same time is very friendly to Christianity. 
From what we have seen and heard in China, 
it appears that the "Republic" is only so in name. 
Yuan Shi Kai is probably as much of a monarch 
as any ruler so called to-day. The parliament 
was long ago dismissed, and there have been no 
elections since. Practically all of the offices in 
the various provinces are appointed by officials 
higher up. The President, so called, rules China 
with a stern hand and seems to be the right man 
for the place in the present emergency. It is 
doubtful whether any other man in China could 
hold the nation together at the present time, and 
he is probably doing it in the best possible way 
just now. 

Mukden, Manchuria, November 6th, midnight. 
We are waiting in the great Manchurian 
Railway depot here for our midnight train to 
Peng Yang, Korea. There is over a foot of snow 
here and it is bitter cold. Canton is tropical, but 
Mukden has the temperature of Minneapolis. 
Our journey from Pekin here, across the great 
plains of the north, was interesting. On the 
way we stopped at Shanhaiguan over night, and 
early in the morning had a good look at the 
Great Wall of China. This wonder of the world 
is fifteen hundred miles long, built to keep out 
the tribes of the north, and shows something of 

212 



IN QUAINT PEKIN. 

the persistence and resources of the Chinese. 
The wall is of large bricks, fifty feet through 
at the bottom, and from twenty-five to forty feet 
high. There are parapets on it about every three 
hundred yards, and although built two centuries 
before Christ, much of it is in good repair to-day. 
A million men were occupied ten years in build- 
ing the wall. 



213 



XIX. 
Among the Koreans. 

Peng Yang, Korea, November 8th. 

It is like stepping into a new world to pass 
from China into Korea. Everything is differ- 
ent — the country, the people, the houses, the cus- 
toms, the animals, and all. When we left Muk- 
den we found ourselves on a fine Japanese train, 
the cars and the Baldwin locomotive pulling them 
having been built in America. The second-class 
sleeping apartments we found quite as comfort- 
able as the Pullman cars at home, and the dining 
car was patterned after the American cars, both 
in service and in food. The country and people 
were distinctly Chinese until we crossed the great 
Yalu River bridge, which links Manchuria with 
Korea. Immediately we found ourselves among 
a different people. The Koreans dress in white 
no matter what kind of work they are doing. 
The commonest laborer digging in the ditch is so 
garbed, and it is remarkable how clean he keeps 
his clothing. The men are dressed in immense 
white trousers bound in at the ankles and a white 
jacket extending to the waist. Unless they are 
engaged in rough work, they wear over this and 
214 



AMONG THE KOREANS. 

coming almost to the ankles a wide-bottomed 
white coat or gown. They wear white cloth 
socks and over them a sandal-like shoe of straw, 
or, less frequently, of leather. In winter the 
trousers, socks, and jacket are heavily padded 
with cotton for warmth. The laboring men wear 
a sort of white turban on the head while at work, 
but at other times they wear what every Korean 
uses when he is really dressed up — a funny little 
black stiff hat, quite tall, with a stiff, horizontal 
rim. This is tied under the chin with a black 
band, and is practically transparent, being made 
of a very fine, open woven-work of bamboo 
strands. Under this hat is a sort of skull-cap, 
also transparent, made of horsehair, and high 
enough to cover the odd twist of hair which 
the older type of Korean always has on the top 
of his head. 

The dress of the women also consists of huge 
white trousers, over which they wear a wide, 
stiffly-starched white skirt, rather short, the band 
of which comes considerably above the waist. 
Above this they wear a white jacket, which is 
very short and barely meets the band of the skirt. 
Often when a burden is being carried on the 
head which needs the attention of the hands, or 
when the skirt has slipped down a little, two or 
three inches of the woman's body is exposed. 
This does not seem to worry them even in the 
coldest weather. The women wear the same 
sort of socks and sandals as do the men, and 
215 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

around their heads they wind a wide strip of 
white cotton or Hnen cloth. 

Korea is a very mountainous country, but has 
many fertile valleys which are excellently culti- 
vated. The farms are very small and produce 
mostly rice, barley, millet, corn, and some cotton 
and hemp. The animals with which they plow 
and on whose backs the huge burdens are carried 
are bullocks and cows. One can see veritable 
stacks of straw and reeds for firewood moving 
along the roads on the back of these patient ani- 
mals. The people also carry very large loads 
on their backs on odd-looking wooden racks. 

To-day we have had an experience long to 
be remembered here in Peng Yang. This city 
is one of the greatest mission centers in the 
world, and perhaps the most successful mission 
city of its size anywhere. The population is 
about fifty thousand, and there are over five 
thousand believers connected with the ten 
churches of the Presbyterian and Methodist 
communions here. The country all about is 
dotted with little congregations and bands of 
Christians. Thirty years ago there was not a 
Christian in Korea. To-day there are about 
two hundred and fifty thousand connected with 
the Protestant churches. Probably no country 
in the world, with the possible exception of 
Uganda, Africa, has seen such success in mis- 
sion endeavor. The work here in Peng Yang 
began twenty-one years ago. The Presbyterian 
216 



AMONG THE KOREANS. 

Board has about twenty workers here, and the 
Methodists six or eight. It is the center for 
both a boys' and a girls' academy, a college, a 
theological seminary, a men's hospital, and a 
women's hospital. The city and the country 
round about are dotted with Christian primary 
schools. 

One of the striking features of the work 
here is its self-support. We have been especially 
studying the Presbyterian work. Practically 
every congregation and every school pays its 
own way. The students in the academy, college, 
and seminary are self-supporting. 

This morning we visited a country congre- 
gation with Mr. Smith, one of the missionaries, 
and this afternoon we attended services at the 
central church here in the city. This gave us 
touch with both types of work. We walked 
about two miles in the country to see the coun- 
try work. The congregation at that point con- 
sists of about thirty members. Since the be- 
ginning of the work there the people have met 
in one of the member's houses. Just now they 
are building a meeting house which will cost 
them about $75, besides the work contributed 
on it. The little chapel has a tile roof, mud 
floor, sides plastered with clay, and windows of 
oiled paper. As the building is not completed, 
we went to the home where services were held. 
The house was a typical one with one long room 
and a kitchen. The main room was cleared for 
217 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

the service and a little pulpit had been placed 
in the center next to one wall. The floor was 
covered with mats, and as the people came in, 
the women seated themselves on one side and 
the men on the other. The sandals were left 
outside, and each person sat on the floor with 
feet curled underneath the body. As each per- 
son took his or her place, the head was bent 
forward until the forehead rested in the hands 
on the floor and a moment was spent in prayer. 
Each person carried both a Korean Bible and a 
hymn book. The preaching was done by one 
of the elders of the congregation. These people 
are not yet able to pay their own settled preacher, 
but they help support an evangelist who has sev- 
eral like congregations under his charge. The 
missionaries here confine their work largely to 
teaching and superintending together with much 
widespread evangelism in new territory. Chapels 
are never built for the people, but from these 
little groups in the homes the work grows until 
the people are able to build a meeting house and 
pay their own regular preachers. Every church 
has in connection with it, a school, which is like- 
wise supported by the people. 

The devotion of these people is quite remark- 
able. They are very poor, but the support of the 
church seems to be the first thing in their consid- 
eration. If they have no money, many of them 
will take out a portion of rice from that which is 
to be cooked and put it aside for the work, thus 
218 



AMONG THE KOREANS. 

denying themselves the full amount of food for 
Christ. Many men have given up their own 
houses for the church and have built others at 
real sacrifice for their own use. The women 
give their jewelry and little trinkets gladly, when 
they have no money to give. Nearly all of the 
people volunteer much of their time for personal 
work or pioneer preaching, and nearly every 
convert added to the church is brought through 
personal effort. As we came back toward town 
we met people out in the country with their 
Bibles and hymnbooks and their lunch, spending 
the day in house-to-house preaching. These peo- 
ple not only go far and wide evangelizing their 
own people, but they have sent four of their 
own missionaries into China, and are planning 
to send more. 

This is a cold November day, and it was 
interesting to see how the home in which the 
congregation met was warmed. The floor was 
some three feet above ground in the living room, 
and under it were conduits made of stone and 
clay. At one end of the house was the kitchen, 
with the ground for a floor. Along the side of 
this, next to the living room, was built the 
Korean stove, made of stones and clay. It was 
a sort of furnace arrangement with four or five 
large cooking kettles plastered in at the top and 
a place for feeding the fire under each kettle. 
The fuel is dry grass and reeds, and, being con- 
stantly fed in during the cooking of the meal, a 
219 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

very hot fire is made under the kettles. Both 
the smoke and the heat pass under the floor and 
through the conduits, and the smoke finds it way 
out through an odd clay pipe at the other end 
of the house. Thus the floor and the tightly 
closed room are slightly heated while the meals 
are being cooked. 

The Sunday-schools here in the city are so 
large that all cannot attend at once, so the men 
and boys meet from nine-thirty to ten-thirty and 
the women and girls from eleven to twelve. The 
people seat themselves in circles on the floor and 
the teachers teach the lesson. 

This afternoon we attended worship at the 
central church, which has a membership of about 
one thousand. The church was being repaired 
and half the roof was off, but there were between 
eight and nine hundred people present. They 
sat for an hour on the floor, deeply interested 
in the service and the sermon, while we shivered 
in our heavy overcoats. We could not help but 
wonder how many people would attend services 
under like conditions at one of our strong home 
churches. The large auditorium, seating with 
galleries fifteen hundred people, is built in two 
wings, at right angles to each other, the women 
occupying one section and the men the other. 
The pastor stands on a platform at the junction 
of the two wings and speaks to the two congre- 
gations at once. The men all wore their curious 
little black hats, even the preacher having his on. 

220 



AMONG THE KOREANS. 

The people followed the frequent reading of the 
Scriptures very closely, from their own Bibles, 
and joined heartily in the singing of the songs. 
This large building was almost entirely con- 
structed with Korean gifts. 

Thirty years ago there was scarcely a Chris- 
tian in Korea. To-day there are three hundred 
thousand adherents to Christianity, and Korea 
bids fair to become a Christian land. 



221 



XX. 

Japan in City and Country. 

Osaka, Japan, November isth. 

We are now on the final lap of our journey 
through the Orient, and have come to the beau- 
tiful land of Japan, not unfittingly named "The 
Sunrise Kingdom." 

We stopped for two days in Seoul, the cap- 
ital of Korea, studying the missionary work 
there, and then took the Korean railroad south 
to Fusan, where we embarked in a little Japanese 
steamer, or ferry, across the Straits to Shimono- 
seki, the eastern tip of Japan. From thence we 
came by rail on the excellent Japanese railroad 
to Osaka. 

Japan is the prettiest country I have ever 
seen. Your first impression is the remarkable 
beauty, symmetry, and artistic appearance of 
everything. Even the poor peasants in the rice 
and tea fields, although ragged and perhaps dirty 
at close range, appear artistic in the distance. 
The houses are fragile, but orderly and pretty; 
the tiny farms are clean and neat, the tea fields 
dot the mountain slopes with brilliant green, the 
villages are close set and orderly, the mountains 
are beautifully towering and green to the top. 
Japan at first blush is fairyland. Two things 

222 



JAPAN IN CITY AND COUNTRY. 

are very apparent, industry and idolatry. Every- 
where the people are busy about their little tasks, 
and everywhere are well-kept temples filled with 
devoted worshipers. 

Mr. and Mrs. M. B. Madden and Mr. and 
Mrs. W. H. Erskine have given us a warm wel- 
come to Osaka. This city is the Pittsburgh of 
Japan, with a million souls in it. It creates the 
strange impression of modern enterprise coales- 
cing with Oriental architecture, customs, and 
people. Our days will be packed with work in 
Japan. 

This afternoon Mr. Madden, Professor 
Bower, and I went twenty miles into the coun- 
try to visit some village evangelistic work. We 
went into a town of twenty thousand and found 
our rented chapel on a quiet street. The Bible 
woman in charge greeted us with many bows 
and grave courtesy, and served to us an inter- 
esting meal of Japanese food as we sat on the 
floor. The food was brought in little bowls 
upon tiny trays, and we ate as best we could 
with chop-sticks. 

Mr. Madden thoroughly enjoys the Japanese 
life; eats their food with a relish, and manipu- 
lates the chop-sticks quite as well as the people 
themselves. 

An earnest audience filled the tiny chapel, each 

leaving his sandals at the door, and all sitting 

quietly down upon their heels. The night was 

cold, and in the center of the floor was a brazier 

223 



Among asia's needy millions. 

with some charcoal burning in it. Around this 
the audience warmed its finger-tips in rotation. 
Besides the audience within, an earnest company 
of silent auditors crowded the little hallway and 
part of the street entrance, and listened to the 
speaking and songs. Many Christian hymns were 
sung in Japanese, and then Mr. Madden spoke 
to the people and afterwards interpreted for 
Professor Bower and myself. As we left, the 
members of the little congregation, with much 
courtesy and many expressions of gratitude, 
bowed us out and off on our journey back to 
Osaka. 

Sunday, 15th. 

This has been a busy day. This morning we 
all attended services in our Tennoji church, 
which is under Mr. Erskine's direction. The 
small audience of gentle-mannered Japanese 
gathered to hear the gospel preached. The Japa- 
nese evangelist conducted the opening exercises, 
and then a visiting preacher, who understands 
English, translated for Mr. Doan and myself as 
we spoke to the people. The communion service 
was very sweet and helpful. The little Sunday- 
school seemed deeply interested in the lesson. 
At the close of the services the officers of the 
church met us in a tiny back room, where tea 
and cookies were served to us as we earnestly 
talked together concerning the work and plans 
for the future. 

224 



Members of the Com- 
mission in Oriental garb. 
R. A. Doan as a Japa- 
nese, S. J. Corey as a 
Korean, and W. C. 
Bower as a Chinese. 




Kawamura and Ktito, 
two old evangelists in 
Japan. Kuto was one 
of the first five Chris- 
tians in Japan. 



JAPAN IN CITY AND COUNTRY. 

This afternoon I went with Mr. Madden to 
a beautiful stream some miles from the city 
and saw him baptize three fine young business 
men. Several of the Bible women and one 
of the evangelists accompanied us. We stood 
at the edge of the stream and sang "Wash me 
and I shall be whiter than snow" in Japanese 
just before the baptisms. 

November i6th. 

To-day we have had a long conference with 
our missionaries here. Plans are on foot for an 
institutional church, for which the money has 
already been pledged, and the building of an- 
other chapel on the industrial side of the city, 
where Mr. and Mrs. Madden's work is carried 
on, and the enlargement of the work all around. 
Our work is small for this big city, and there 
should be more workers and more investments 
for Christ for this great population. 

This afternoon we spent in visiting the kin- 
dergarten for poor children at Kizukawa, con- 
ducted by Mrs. Madden and her Japanese kin- 
dergartner. In a tiny, rented place, off a busy 
factory street, fifty-four little tots are gathered 
each day in this kindergarten. The room is over- 
crowded, and there is a long waiting list for 
those who would like to come. This kinder- 
garten gives Mrs. Madden access to many homes 
in this part of the city. The little folks pay ten 
cents a month tuition, and this supports the 

15 225 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

Japanese teachers. This kindergarten also forms 
a preaching place, and to-night Mr. Madden 
spoke to a large crowd of Japanese, who filled 
the hallway and the street, as he earnestly 
preached the gospel to them. This great indus- 
trial section affords a fine opportunity for Chris- 
tian work. 

News came to us to-day that the emperor 
has just given $25,000 for the enlargement of 
the St. Luke's Christian Hospital, in Tokyo. 
Christianity has made itself felt in this little 
kingdom. 

November lyth. 

We left Osaka last night, and had a fairly 
good night's rest in the diminutive sleeper of 
the Japanese railway. We arose early this morn- 
ing, and for a couple of hours sat in our train, 
dazed by the beauty of this wonderful country — 
beautiful little valleys, neatly terraced hills, mul- 
titudes of little villages, and tiny little farms 
stretched in every direction. Back of this, 
towards the interior, stood great Mt. Fuji, 
the sacred mountain of Japan. Chaste and regu- 
lar, this wonderful mountain towers directly 
from the plain, with only small foothills about 
it. The hills are terraced to the top for the tea, 
rice, and mulberry fields, and hardly an inch of 
space seems uncultivated. 

Fred Hagin, of Tokyo, met us at Shisuoka, 
a charming city of seventy-five thousand, where 
226 



JAPAN IN CITY AND COUNTRY. 

we have a good evangelistic work. We climbed 
into a little jinrikisha, and our trotting "pull- 
men" hurried us through this quaint city. We 
stopped at the temple of "The God of Good For- 
tune," and saw the thousands of paper prayers 
tied all over the railings of the Shinto shrines. 
We visited the Canadian Methodist Orphanage, 
with its little cottages nestling under the hills, 
and saw the numerous little homeless Japanese 
they are rearing and teaching for Christ. Our 
work has been established here for a number 
of years, and we have an earnest group of Chris- 
tians. 

After a few hours we left Shisuoka for 
Tokyo, and spent a number of hours in earnest 
conference with Mr. Hagin. He has been in 
Japan for about fifteen years. At the present 
time his wife and family are in America for 
the education of the children. These separations 
are the hardest experiences in a missionary's 
life. Mr. Hagin told us of his work on a little 
island to the south of the main group. It is an 
isolated island, fifty miles from the mainland, 
thickly inhabited. No Christian work had been 
done there until Mr. Hagin visited the place. 
He has had nine baptisms, and is enthusiastic 
about the work there. 

November i8th. 

To-day we visited the town of Chiba, an 
attractive little city of twenty-five thousand, 

227 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

twenty miles from Tokyo. Mr. Hagin has 
charge of the work here. We have a neat Httle 
rented preaching place, and the evangelists and 
group of Christians gathered to greet us. We 
should have property and a good chapel in this 
fine center. 

To-night, after returning to Tokyo, Mr. 
Hagin took us through the densely populated 
and degraded section of the city, where he has 
hoped to open an institute. Here we found the 
streets packed with people seeking amusement. 
Moving picture shows were evident everywhere, 
and vile places of shame crowd this part of the 
city. After passing through many of the streets 
and looking at several possible locations, we took 
our supper in a real Japanese restaurant. We 
removed our shoes at the entrance, sat on little 
mats on the floor. A waiter brought us char- 
coal cooking stands, and on these he placed little 
skillets, in which were poured a delicate bean 
oil. In this we cooked thin slices of beef, with 
bits of onion and celery, and other vegetables. 
Bowls of rice and chop-sticks were given us, 
and we alternated between rice and the bits of 
meat; in the meantime drinking much Japanese' 
tea. We were hungry, and the supper was de- 
licious. It does not take long to accustom one- 
self to the strange manners of these Oriental 
people. 



228 



XXL 
Traveling in Northern Japan. 

Akita, Japan, November 21st. 

We have had a wonderfully interesting ex- 
perience in northern Japan. We hurried away 
from Tokyo on the eve of the i8th for this 
northern visit, and will go back to the capital 
for a longer stay later. Professor Ishikawa, of 
our Middle School in Tokyo, has accompanied 
us as interpreter. After a pleasant night on the 
train, and having eaten an interesting breakfast 
of boiled rice and broiled eels, we alighted at 
Shinjo, and there were met by Mr. C. F. McCall 
and Miss Garst, of Akita. 

After a warm greeting and a cup of tea at 
a little wayside inn, we were hurried into jinriki- 
shas and our whole party sped across country, 
seven miles, to Sakata, where we have a church. 
Our jinrikisha men trotted at good speed all the 
distance and did not seem to mind it. The air 
was bracing and frosty; the mountains were 
beautiful, and the little rice paddies stretched 
away through the valleys on every hand. We 
were impressed with the wonderful frugality of 
the Japanese people — every inch of ground is 
229 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

carefully turned with a spade, every particle of 
fertilizer is scrupulously saved, the crops are 
often changed, and the most possible is secured 
from the land. The average Japanese farm is 
between one half acre and an acre in extent. It 
is wonderful what these industrious people wrest 
from the soil. 

Sakata is a great idolatrous center. We vis- 
ited a famous Shinto shrine, and were shown 
the sacred image of worship by an old, bald- 
headed, white-bearded priest, dressed in a flow- 
ing gown. He requested us to remove our shoes 
at the gate of the shrine. The old man rever- 
ently knelt before the shrine, lighted a number 
of candles, chanted his prayers, fingered his 
beads, and then, ringing a little bell, he pulled 
on a silken string and the curtain in front of 
the image was slowly rolled up. Before us 
crouched a hideous, shriveled mummy, or skele- 
ton, of an old, ascetic priest, who had starved 
himself to death in religious penance one hun- 
dred and sixty years before. This dried-up body 
was the object of worship, and to this shrine 
tens of thousands come every year. 

What a vivid contrast between this idolatry 
and the simple worship of our Christians at the 
little chapel at night! Seldom, if ever, have I 
attended a sweeter service. The church meets 
in a little, rented house, off a quiet street. We 
first sat down on a matting covering the floor, 
and had supper together in Japanese fashion. 
230 



TRAVELING IN NORTHERN JAPAN. 

Then the people began to gather. The sandals 
were left in the hallway, and the people came in 
in their stocking feet. The evangelist and his 
wife seemed to play the part of host and hostess, 
and as each one came in, he or she would ap- 
proach the two who sat upon the floor, and then 
also kneeling down before the pastor and his wife, 
the newcomers would each put their hands to the 
floor and bow their heads low between them. 
This would be repeated three times by both the 
visitor and the pastor and his wife. When any 
one addressed another person in conversation, he 
would first bow very low, and when closing the 
conversation he would again bow almost to the 
floor. Many of these people had walked a long 
distance. By service time the little hall was filled 
with people closely crowded together, sitting 
on the floor. The service was long, and every- 
body was quietly attentive. After each one had 
preached a little, a conference was held with the 
principal members and the evangelist and his 
wife. The people were enthusiastic about buy- 
ing a lot of their own and then asking the mis- 
sion to help them in erecting a little chapel. 

That night we stayed at the Japanese hotel 
of the little city. Mrs. Doan and Miss Garst 
were shown to the Ladies' Room, and the six 
men of us occupied one large room. The walls 
and partitions were of rice paper stretched on 
wooden frames. It was cold, but no heat was 
provided save the charcoal braziers, over which 
231 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

we could warm our fingers. The room was 
very neat, and the matting on the floor very 
clean. There was no furniture. We had pro- 
vided ourselves with heavy woolen oversocks, 
so we would not catch cold on removing our 
shoes. The beds, consisting largely of heavily 
padded comforters, were made upon the floor. 
We were each provided with a padded kimona 
in which to sleep. 

There was one bathroom in the hotel, and 
one tub, in which everybody seemed to bathe. 
The tub was made of wood, was oblong, about 
three and one half feet deep, and filled with 
water almost hot enough to blister. The Japa- 
nese method of bathing is to carefully cleanse 
the body from a little tub, and then, after this 
process, to remain a good long while in the 
large, hot bath and heat the body thoroughly. 
The large bath is not for cleansing purposes, but 
is greatly enjoyed as a heating and soothing 
process. 

In the morning we were awakened by a 
servant pushing the many sections of the light, 
outer partition along a wooden runway. Thus 
the whole side of our room was open to the sun- 
light and likewise to the cold. 

Early in the morning we rode across country 
about fifteen miles in an American Hupmobile, 
to Tsuruoka. We were again housed in a Japa- 
nese hotel. This is the town in which Charles 
E. Garst and his wife located years ago, in the 
232 



TRAVEUNG IN NORTHERN JAPAN. 

early days of our Japan mission, and where Miss 
Gretchen Garst, who is with us, was born. We 
have a neat Httle chapel and parsonage, and a 
located Japanese evangelist. We spent some of 
the day in going through the excellent Govern- 
ment schools of this little city. Japan has a well- 
developed educational system, which in plan is 
a combination of the German scheme and our 
own. Their schools are modern in every respect. 
We visited the boys' high school, which lacks a 
year of being equivalent to one of our American 
colleges, and also a large girls' school with four 
hundred and fifty charming Japanese maidens 
in attendance. This school has all the depart- 
ments you would find in an up-to-date school in 
America. Besides the regular studies, the fol- 
lowing courses are offered : Art, music, domestic 
science, needlework, and physical culture. 

At night we enjoyed a stirring service at our 
chapel. The house was packed with an earnest 
audience, largely students. We each spoke 
through an interpreter ; then Professor Ishikawa 
gave the people a ringing sermon in Japanese, 
and Missionary McCall closed with an exhorta- 
tion. 

Early this morning we took a motorbus from 
Tsuruoka across to Shin jo, calling on our pastor 
there in his little, modest home, which he like- 
wise uses as a meeting place. We sat with him 
on the floor and conversed about his hopes for 
the future for his new work. Then we had a 

233 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

prayer together and he bowed us on our way. 
This lonely widower and his niece are the only 
workers in this large district, and he is toiling 
earnestly for the extension of the Kingdom. 

Here in Akita we are where our work was 
first inaugurated in Japan. Here the Garsts and 
Smiths came thirty years ago, and here in the 
little cemetery is Mrs. Smith's grave. This is a 
city of some forty thousand, and one of the most 
important centers in northern Japan. Our work- 
ers have established outposts all through this dis- 
trict, and here in this city we have one of our 
strongest Japanese congregations. 

After reaching Akita, we spent the rest of the 
day in conference with the missionaries concern- 
ing their work and their plans for the future. 
Besides Mr. and Mrs. McCall and Miss Garst, 
Miss Rose Armbruster is located here. 

Sunday night, November 22d. 

Another interesting day. Quite a snowstorm 
swept this part of Japan this morning, and the 
forenoon was cold and raw. We attended one 
of the Sunday-schools conducted by Miss Arm- 
bruster, and in spite of the snow and the thinly- 
clad condition of the children here, there were 
forty-five in the little school. She had to keep 
them quite busy in exercises to keep them warm. 
Most of the children were barefooted, with the 
exception of the high, wooden clog worn on the 
feet, and held by a string running over the toes 
234 



TRAVELING IN NORTHERN JAPAN. 

and gripped by the large toe and the second toe 
of the foot. These clogs have wooden strips 
on the bottom to keep the foot out of the snow 
and wet. The little feet and ankles were blue 
with cold, but no one seemed to mind it. The 
Sunday-school is a great agency for preaching 
the gospel in Japan. It not only teaches the chil- 
dren, but opens the homes to the missionaries. 

One of our best Japanese kindergartens is 
in this city. Miss Gretchen Garst is in charge 
and conducts an excellent work, with many of 
the high-class children of the city in attendance. 
We have an excellent building, which was erected 
largely through the labor of Mrs. Nina Stevens, 
former missionary at Akita, who interested a 
number of friends in the building. This is a 
well equipped kindergarten with four Japanese 
teachers, and is graded high by Japanese school 
officials. 

The services at the church to-day were in- 
teresting, and the congregation about filled the 
house. This is a very homelike and apparently 
enterprising little church. The people support 
their own pastor. Mr. Doan spoke at the even- 
ing service concerning his men's Bible class work 
in America, and at the close an excellent Bible 
class was formed. 

Our people have a great district in this part 
of Japan in which to carry on their work. 
Charles E. Garst, our pioneer missionary, trav- 
eled all over this country preaching the gospel 
235 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

in many places. He was a great missionary, a 
noble worker, and the people remember him with 
love and respect. He was followed by Mr. and 
Mrs. E. S. Stevens, who attained a warm place 
in the hearts of the people. His illness made it 
necessary to return to America. 

Fukushima, November 2^d. 

This is a city of about thirty thousand, where 
our missionaries, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas A. 
Young, are located. They live in a Japanese 
house, and have a very intersting work. Early 
this afternoon we took a five-mile jinrikisha ride 
to a nearby town, where our missionaries have a 
"Sunday" school conducted on Thursday, be- 
cause this is the best day to reach the children. 
This is a school of girls, and there were one 
hundred of them packed into the little chapel. 
Many of these little girls had their baby sisters 
fastened to their backs, underneath their kim- 
onas, for the weather is cold. Eight young men 
have recently been baptized in this town. 

We rode in our jinrikisha through the beau- 
tiful valley surrounded by mountains. We could 
see a volcano smoking in the distance, and on 
every side of us were extensive mulberry or- 
chards, for this is the silk-growing district of 
Japan. These Japanese children are very inter- 
esting. The little girls are extremely fascinating 
and sweet with their demure little ways and ar- 
tistic kimona dresses. 

236 



TRAVELING IN NORTHERN JAPAN. 

At night we enjoyed an interesting service 
at our church, which has two hundred members. 
We found the American and Japanese flags en- 
twined in the chapel, and after the service was 
over the workers served us with tea and cakes. 
This is a very encouraging work. 

Sendai, Japan, November 25th. 

This is a city of one hundred thousand, 
where we have had a church for some time. 
Mr. and Mrs. C. E. Robinson, of Missouri, are 
located here, and also Miss Jessie Asbury. The 
German Reformed Mission is very strong in 
this city. They have fine girls' and boys' schools, 
and several churches. There is also a Union 
Orphanage here with two hundred little Japa- 
nese children, conducted by the combined boards. 
The Congregational, Methodist, Episcopal, and 
Baptist Boards also have work here. This was 
the home of John H. DeForrest, the great Con- 
gregational missionary, who spent nearly forty 
years in Japan. 

We have six out-stations from this city, with 
three located Japanese preachers, who cover 
many other points. Here we met Kawamura, 
one of our oldest evangelists, who came forty 
miles to invite us to attend a special service in 
his town. He was much disappointed when we 
told him we could not go. He is an interesting 
character, called by many "J^^n the Baptist," 
and has been preaching for our mission nearly 

^Z7 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

thirty years. He is a typical Japanese, dressing 
in the flowing kimona, and wears the Japanese 
clogs. Japanese men have no pockets, and Kawa- 
mura carries his Bible and his notebook in his 
large kimona sleeves. 

We had an interesting conference with the 
Japanese workers here to-day. One of their 
strong points was that while there was much 
written about Christianity in Japan, yet knowl- 
edge from reading about Christianity does not 
make Christians. They insisted that Christianity 
is a life, and that it takes a Christian life to pro- 
duce it. Mr. and Mrs. Young, of Fukushima, 
came up to-day, and we had a long conference 
with them and the workers here. It makes one's 
heart ache when these missionaries express them- 
selves concerning their problems and their needs, 
and we feel our inability to help them as they 
should be helped. This field is not as needy as 
some, because it is fairly well covered between 
various missionary societies working from this 
city. 



238 



XXII. 

In Important and Populous Tokyo. 

Tokyo, November 2yth. 

We have spent two busy days in Tokyo. 
Much of this time has been spent in visiting 
the work of Miss Mary Rioch and Miss Lavenia 
Oldham. These two missionaries have lived to- 
gether twenty-one years in Tokyo. 

Miss Rioch has an excellent kindergarten 
and a primary day school in the midst of one 
of the most populated sections in the city of 
Tokyo. Her work is supported by the Canadian 
women, and the building has also been con- 
structed by them. Miss Rioch needs very much 
a larger playground and building, and also a 
chapel near her work. We were at her schools 
when the recess was announced, and the more 
than two hundred pupils fairly jammed the little 
backyard where they are obliged to play. These 
schools are recognized by the Japanese educa- 
tional authorities, and have high standing. On 
Saturday, Miss Rioch has a "Sunday-school" 
here, with two hundred and twenty-five in at- 
tendance. It is hoped that a new lot can soon 
be secured to give this excellent work better 
equipment. Miss Rioch also conducts a smaller 
kindergarten in another part of the city. 
239 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

To-day we went out thirty miles with Miss 
Oldham to one of our out-stations, a town of 
twenty thousand. She superintends this work, 
and has a Japanese pastor. The church has 
twenty-two members, and the people meet in a 
little rented hall. The country is filled with cities 
of this kind, where much work could be done 
if we had the workers and the money. The 
Japanese evangelist who serves in this small 
church receives a little more than $ioo a year. 
He has been trained in our Bible school in Tokyo. 
Miss Oldham also has charge of a chapel and 
its work in the city; the chapel she built with 
her own money, and a Japanese pastor has charge 
of the work. These women also superintend 
various Sunday-schools in other parts of the city. 
They have a group of eight Japanese orphan 
girls in their home, whom they are rearing and 
educating for Christian service. 

November 28th. 

This morning we had the rare experience of 
an interview with Count Okuma, premier of 
Japan and head of the Japanese Government. 
Through Mr. P. A. Davey, one of our mission- 
aries, and Mr. Seki, one of our own Japanese 
Christians who is private secretary to the count, 
we were granted the interview. 

We found the count very democratic, and 
he kindly gave us an hour's interview, conducted 
through the Japanese interpreter, one of the pro- 
240 




Country Sunday-school near Fukushima, Japan. 




Beginning of a church near Fukushima, Japan. These 
young men, recently baptized, are all students. 



IMPORTANT AND POPULOUS TOKYO. 

fessors in the Waseda University. This is called 
Count Okuma's school, and his residence is 
within the beautiful grounds. He was having a 
meeting with his Government leaders, and dur- 
ing the hour we were waiting for him we strolled 
about/the beautiful grounds and visited his won- 
derful greenhouses and fern garden. The pro- 
fessor who interpreted for us is a Christian man 
and a graduate of Oxford, England. He told 
us that a large number of professors in Waseda 
University were Christian men. 

The count impressed us as a very vigorous 
old man. He has an artificial limb and walks 
with some difficulty. He smoked a cigarette 
while he talked to us. He told us that while 
he was not a professing Christian, he had studied 
the Bible fifty years ago under one of the pioneer 
missionaries, and that he was deeply interested 
in Christianity. He said, "I have never been 
baptized, but I am trying to live up to the prin- 
ciples of Christianity, and feel that I do quite 
as well as some who have been baptized." He 
spoke of the great influence of Christianity in 
Japan, and urged us not to accept what we could 
see with our eyes as all that Christianity had 
done for his country. 

When asked by Professor Bower what he 
deemed the most striking influence- of Chris- 
tianity in Japan, he said that there were many 
hidden influences that men could not see unless 
they lived in Japan, but he said he thought the 

i« 241 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

greatest influence upon Japan was its effect upon 
the life and standing of women. He went on 
to say that formerly Japanese looked upon 
women as having no worthy station in life, as 
being practically without souls, and having no 
destiny. He said : "Before the coming of Chris- 
tianity, one philosopher had said our two greatest 
curses in Japan are thieves and women. But 
we have learned differently now. Your Chris- 
tian missionaries have taught us to revere women 
and put them in their proper places. We know 
now that they have a destiny, that they have 
souls, and that their place is quite as important 
as the place of a man. We are introducing the 
principles which Christianity stands for with re- 
gard to women into our laws, and while we have 
not obtained for women what your land has, our 
ideals are being constantly purified and uplifted 
by the teachings of Christianity. We have come 
to honor our women and to hold them in great 
respect." 

The count talked to us about the contribu- 
tion of the East to Christianity, and said he 
thought there was a great similarity between the 
life and religion of the Hebrews and the life 
and ideals of the Orientals. He said he felt 
Christianity needed to absorb all the great re- 
ligious truths of other religions before it be- 
came a truly universal religion, which he believed 
it eventually would be. He spoke in the highest 
terms of the missionaries and their work, and 
242 



IMPORTANT AND POPULOUS TOKYO. 

mentioned their great services for education and 
reform aside from their distinctly religious work. 
We led the count on to speak of the relation- 
ship between Japan and America, and he spoke 
with the utmost frankness on this point. He 
said he did not feel that the relationship of any 
two nations had ever been more beautiful than 
that sustained for so many years between Japan 
and America. He went on to say that Admiral 
Perry and Townsend Harris first brought Japan 
to a world appreciation and made her feel that 
there was an outside world worthy to have fel- 
lowship with. He stated that America had come 
to Japan with the utmost frankness and sin- 
cerity, and had from the very beginning shown 
Japan that she wished to help her. He said he 
hoped there would never be trouble between the 
two nations, and that he felt each had a won- 
derful destiny before it in the Pacific. He said 
he had every confidence in President Wilson, and 
felt that Japan and America would eventually 
understand each other. He stated that he felt 
in recent years America had somewhat changed 
from her old frank and friendly attitude, and 
that the prejudice of some people in America 
had kept this country from doing her duty toward 
Japan. Pie believed, however, that education 
and patience on both sides would clear the diffi- 
culties. He said what his countryrnen disliked 
about America's attitude was the apparent dis- 
crimination against his people, and that while 

243 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

the eastern gates of our land were wide open to 
the immigrant citizen, the western gates had been 
closed, even to the finest and best educated that 
Japan could afford. He said he thought it would 
be well for Americans to have republished the 
beautiful statements of America's attitude toward 
Japan as expressed by Admiral Perry and Town- 
send Harris. He said he thought if Americans 
would read these documents carefully this would 
open their eyes and tend to change the spirit 
which has been evident in California and some 
of our other Western States. 

November 2pth. 

These last two days have been fairly seething 
with activities. Aside from the school center at 
Takinogawa, each of our missionaries in Tokyo 
has a district of his or her own. We spent a 
part of Friday with Mr. P. A. Davey, who has 
been in Tokyo for two years. He has a church 
in a section of the city called Koishikawa, in the 
center of a great student population. He con- 
ducts student Bible classes, and has access to 
several of the schools and a number of the stu- 
dent dormitories. His church is largely engaged 
in student work. 

In our conference with him we discovered 
a number of very interesting things, one of them 
being that our work in Japan has been quite 
largely among students. These have been bap- 
tized and become leaders, but have scattered, 
244 



IMPORTANT AND POPULOUS TOKYO. 

and problems of self-support in our churches 
have been difficult because the converts were 
largely in this class. Mr. Davey also told us 
that at least forty per cent of the Christians in 
Japan are moving about. It seems to be quite 
the thing for the more enterprising people in 
Japan to change their place of abode for better 
industrial conditions. We have a great need for 
more evangelistic missionaries in Japan. 

Mr. Davey is from Australia, and communi- 
cated to us the interesting news that we did not 
have a single congregation in Australia which 
is not contributing to all missionary purposes. 

We learned that one of the members of the 
House of Commons recently elected from Hok- 
kido, the northern island of Japan, is one of our 
own members. In the midst of his duties for 
his Government he calls in his neighbors each 
night for prayer and Bible study. One of the 
Japanese members of Mr. Davey's church has 
recently given $250 as a special gift to the church. 
Out of eighty thousand converts to Christianity 
in Japan, at least ten per cent of them are from 
the well-educated class. 

In the afternoon of yesterday we had a con- 
ference with our Japanese leaders in Tokyo 
which was exceedingly interesting. These men 
are earnest and capable leaders, longing for the 
redemption of Japan. 

To-day has been a busy Sunday. We divided 
up in the morning — Professor Bower going to 

245 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

the school center at Takinogawa, Mr. and Mrs. 
Doan attending services at Mr. Hagin's center, 
and I went with Miss Oldham. 

She first took me to a little Sunday-school of 
forty children, in a place where Miss Wirick 
used to work before her death. Then I went 
to her church at Ushigome. This building was 
constructed out of money which she saved from 
school teaching before going to Japan twenty- 
two years ago. There was an earnest congre- 
gation at this church. Miss Oldham tells me 
in the early days of its establishment there was 
much persecution. 

Professor Bower reports seven baptisms and 
forty inquirers at the Takinogawa church this 
morning, with a fine audience. 

This afternoon and evening we spent with 
Miss Kate Johnson, who has been longer in 
Japan than any of our missionaries. We rode 
across the city to her home in jinrikishas, and 
found her living in a Japanese house with eleven 
orphan girls whom she is caring for. She has 
taken in many little girls of this kind during 
her missionary career in Japan, as has Miss Old- 
ham and Miss Rioch. They are being trained 
and educated, and some of them become Bible 
women. These children are supported by indi- 
viduals in the homeland, who pay $50 a year 
for their expenses. These bright little girls in 
Miss Johnson's home sang us a number of songs 
— some of them in English. 
246 



IMPORTANT AND POPULOUS TOKYO. 

To-night we attended the chapel where Miss 
Johnson directs the work. It was well filled 
with people, and a visiting preacher spoke. This 
was one of the series of meetings in the Three- 
Year Evangelistic Campaign among the Japanese 
churches. Mr. Doan gave a short talk at the 
close through an interpreter, and one of his re- 
marks was, "What a wonderful thing it is that 
God understands all languages!" 

We have been interested in talking with Mr. 
Davey about the attitude of the Japanese. Their 
viewpoint is largely that of the critical examiner. 
While the Koreans are undoubting in their ac- 
ceptance of the Bible and lean toward a literal 
interpretation of the Scriptures, the Japanese 
always ask pointed questions, and their faith 
comes with difficulty after much investiga- 
tion. The students in Japan are quite modern 
in their point of view, and they insist on getting 
at Christian truth largely from the scholar's 
viewpoint. Mr. Davey thinks that while Bud- 
dhism is still the strong religion of Japan, the 
influence of Christianity on the nation is much 
greater than the influence of Buddhism. In com- 
paring the Korean Christians with Japanese, he 
spoke of a Korean girl journeying all the way 
to Honolulu to marry a Korean boy, and then 
refusing him because he did not know enough 
about his Bible. She went back home alone, and 
he is now using the $200 he had saved as a 
wedding payment for her parents, in studying 
247 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

for Christian service and equipping himself suf- 
ficiently with Scriptural knowledge that he may 
marry. 

November ^oth. 

We took luncheon to-day with Mr. and Mrs. 
Vincent, independent missionaries, who are lo- 
cated near Mr. Davey. They are fine young 
people, and have recently come to Japan. They 
spoke of recently baptizing a Japanese eighty- 
three years old, and his wife, who is seventy-six. 
This evening we enjoyed a visit to the work of 
Mr. and Mrs. W. D. Cunningham, who have 
spent about fourteen years in Tokyo in inde- 
pendent missionary work. They have an inter- 
esting work with three chapel centers where 
Japanese preach, and are soon to open another. 
We enjoyed very much meeting with these ear- 
nest people and their group of Japanese workers. 

Takinogawa, Tokyo, December ist. 

We are now at our school center here — one 
of the best educational centers in all of our mis- 
sion fields. Here is located the Drake Bible Col- 
lege and Middle School, the first building of 
which was constructed by Governor Drake of 
Iowa, now deceased. The Margaret K. Long 
Girls' School is also located here, and a kinder- 
garten. Mr. and Mrs. McCoy are in the Bible 
school and the middle school. Professor Ishi- 
kawa is dean of the middle school and also helps 
248 



IMPORTANT AND POPULOUS TOKYO. 

in the Bible college. He has studied in America, 
at the Ohio University, and is one of the strong 
men of Japan. 

A good school center is absolutely essential 
to efficient missionary work in a land like Japan. 

There are one hundred and fifty students in 
the middle school, and about twenty in the Bible 
college. The middle school is one of the best in 
Japan and fully recognized by the Government. 
In the girls' school we have sixty-two students — 
all are Christians but thirteen. There were forty 
baptisms in our schools here last year. Miss 
Bertha Clawson is at the head of our girls' 
school — she has been here seventeen years. As- 
sociated with her are Miss Edith Parker, Miss 
Mary Lediard, and Miss Winifred Brown. R. A. 
Long has contributed most of the money for the 
girls' school buildings. A fine new domestic 
science department has just been completed. 

We have largely spent the day in conference 
on the girls' school, its prospects and outlook. 
This seems to be a very promising center for 
the future, and in this part of Tokyo we are 
surrounded by city and Government schools, 
especially of the primary grade. The high grade 
of our institution appeals to the best class of 
people. The majority of the girls in the school 
here support themselves. The Bible is used in 
the regular courses, and practically all are con- 
verted to Christianity before they leave the in- 
stitution. The school started eight years ago 
249 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

with twelve, and now has sixty-two in attend- 
ance. 

This evening we spent much time in confer- 
ence on the Bible college and in talking over 
plans for the future. 

We need a larger teaching force in the Bible 
college. There should be another man associated 
with Mr. McCoy, and another Japanese teacher 
or two added. The present force is attempting 
to carry on teaching in the Bible college, middle 
school, and also in the night school. Some fine 
young men have been turned out of this insti- 
tution who are now preachmg in our churches 
throughout Japan. Professor Frank Otsuka is 
just leaving this school. He has been appointed 
by the Japanese Government as interpreter for 
the Red Cross corps of nurses and doctors who 
will soon sail for England and the continent to 
help in the war. It is quite a recognition to have 
a Christian man and one of our Japanese pro- 
fessors appointed for this position. Mr. Otsuka 
is a graduate of Bethany College. 

The school church here has two hundred 
members, and is planning to become entirely 
self-supporting. Nineteen have been added to 
the membership in the last few months. 

We discovered there are five Korean boys in 
our middle school here — one of them was bap- 
tized by Mr. Rains while he was in Korea three 
years ago. He plans to finish his training and 
go back to his own people to establish a church. 
250 



XXIII. 

Closing Days. 

Tokyo, Japan, December 2d. 

To-day has been spent in conference on our 
girls' school and in meeting a large delegation of 
missionaries to confer about the proposed Union 
Girls' College for Tokyo. The Japanese have 
fine schools of their own, and the majority of 
the institutions must be of high grade. We learn 
that out of twenty-seven graduates of our girls' 
school here, all have been Christians but one. 
The girls in this school carry on four Sunday- 
schools in the surrounding portions of the city. 
A strong course is offered in Bible training. 
Girls of the Bible course call frequently on the 
parents of all the Sunday-school children. On 
Wednesday evening there is a religious service, 
of which the girls in the Bible training depart- 
ment have charge. The new domestic science 
department is giving the school a wider and more 
favorable acquaintance. 

Tokyo, Japan, December ^th. 

We have spent three days in continuous ses- 
sion with our Japanese missionaries on the work, 
its problems and plans for the future. These 
have been illuminating conferences. 
251 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

I doubt if the President of the United States 
and his Cabinet have discussed more serious and 
important problems than have we during these 
three days, and I am sure the President and his 
Cabinet could not feel more intensely the im- 
portance of all they were discussing than have 
these earnest workers here. The foreign mis- 
sionary's task is no simple job. The work must 
be carefully planned and directed. It would be 
futile to attempt to carry on work in this land 
without careful provision for the future. Be- 
sides this, the work must be so articulated in its 
evangelizing and educational phases that a strong 
Japanese leadership may be built up for the days 
to come. 

December pth. 

We spent Monday and Tuesday in confer- 
ence with our Japanese evangelists and workers. 
There were about fifty gathered together, and we 
talked intimately about the work, the future of 
Christianity in Japan, and plans for our mis- 
sionary enterprise. These were very helpful 
days. The Japanese workers are an earnest 
group, and are longing, praying, and working for 
the redemption of their people for Christ. 

To-day we have enjoyed the dedication serv- 
ices for the new Bible college building and the 
new domestic science building of the girls' 
school. A large company of visitors were in at- 
tendance, including a number of missionaries of 
252 



CLOSING DAYS. 

other societies, and it has been a high day for 
our people. The buildings were dedicated to the 
work of God, to the equipment of leadership for 
Christ, and to the blessing of Japan in intellect 
and soul. 

December 12th. 

To-morrow we sail on the steamship Mon- 
golia for San Francisco. It has been five months 
since we left our homes in America. The time 
has passed rapidly. These have been months of 
happy felowship, interesting experiences, heart- 
aches, and joys. The missionaries have been very 
good everywhere, and have made our stay most 
pleasant. Our Filipino, Chinese, and Japanese 
brethren have been courtesy itself. Our confer- 
ences together have been frank and direct. We 
have seen both the successes and the mistakes 
of the work. Our hearts have been cheered and 
enthused by the ardor of the native workers, the 
missionaries, and the success of the work. They 
have likewise been wrung with pain at the prob- 
lems and the abundant, wide-open doors which 
we are unable to enter. Our people must come 
to the relief of the workers at the front. We 
have prayed for open doors, and the Lord has 
given them unto us. Thrice shame upon our 
people if we do not enter them now! The mis- 
sionaries need reinforcement — men and money 
and buildings and all kinds of equipment. We 
have sent the workers forth, the Lord has opened 
253 



AMONG ASIA'S NEEDY MILLIONS. 

the fields, and we will be disloyal to Christ and to 
the workers if we do not make possible the suc- 
cess of the effort they have so patiently begun. 
These are the days in which things must be done 
well upon the mission field. When the doors 
were unopened it seemed wise for the mission- 
aries to go everywhere preaching the Word. 
Now all classes are accessible, and the mission- 
aries must largely concentrate their powers upon 
the building up of permanent work in central 
places, which will have radiating influence in the 
future. They must likewise bend their ener- 
gies toward raising up and training a large force 
of competent native leaders who can enter the 
wide-open doors and convert these lands for 
Christ. The missionary task in non-Christian 
lands must be full-rounded. At home we are 
surrounded by the by-products of our religion 
because of our Christian civilization. In these 
lands we have visited, the missionary must be 
preacher, teacher, healer, educator, and trainer. 
Our Foreign Society with its meager income 
has a herculean and diversified task. 

The fellowship with the members of the 
Commission has been most helpful. Six months' 
intimate travel together, such as we have had, 
has developed a friendship very sweet and very 
tender. It would be hard to measure the service 
of these two men of God, Mr. R. A. Doan and 
Professor W. C. Bower. They have worked 
night and day. They have given their most ear- 
254 



CLOSING DAYS. 

nest thought to the problems. They have prayed 
and advised and helped bear the burdens of all. 
Mrs. Doan and Austin Doan have contributed 
largely to the work of the Commission. Mrs. 
Doan with her kindly spirit and deep interest in 
everything, and Austin with his youthful enthusi- 
asm and yet his fine judgment, have helped to 
make the visit a success. 

We hope we have helped the missionaries, and 
we know they have helped us. We will go back 
to the homeland with greatly increased sympathy 
and love in our hearts for these fields, with a new 
joy and fellowship in the work of the native 
Christians, and an appreciation and love for the 
missionaries which we have never had before. 
We now know something of their problems and 
disappointments; their delights and their loneli- 
ness. We have learned from them more of both 
the joy and sufferings of Christ. O, that we 
might take back to the people of the homeland 
the keen interest and sympathy which has come 
to us! God bless the workers, and God save 
these needy people of the Orient! 



255 



